Sword Art Online Alternate
by ColtonTheCreeper
Summary: What would happen if Kirito and Asuna team up from the very beginning? That is what this story is about. Kirito and Asuna will have many challenges ahead of them in this story. (KiritoXAsuna)
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Hello everyone and welcome to my newest story Sword Art Online Alternate. For those of you who do not know what Sword Art Online is I have no idea why you are reading this, but read on! Any way Sword Art Online is a manga and an anime series. I highly recommend checking it out if you have not. Any way in this story Kirito and Asuna will team up at the very beginning of SAO instead of Kirito going solo. Some things will be similar and others will be drastically different. Also I have read some other SAO fan fictions and people have put stuff like Kun and Sama and crap like that after names. I am not going to do that because I have no idea the reason or how to use it. I hope you all will enjoy this story and now let's start. P.S this chapter will be the most similar to the anime and manga.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online sadly.**

Chapter 1: The Death Game

"Link Start!" Kirito said the command with a smile on his face as the time turned to one o'clock. You may be wondering what Kirito is smiling about. The answer is simple. At one o'clock today the official server for the VRMMORPG Sword Art Online is being launched at one o'clock. As the swirling colors flashed by Kirito he still had the feeling of happiness because he had been looking forward to returning to the world of swords since the end of the beta test.

The screen popped up in front of Kirito for him to log in to Sword Art Online. Kirito typed in his username Kirito and his password. When it recognized him the screen popped up saying 'Welcome to Sword Art Online!'

Kirito felt himself fade into existence in the City of Beginnings. Kirito lifted up his hands and looked at them and raised his head to look at the vast city. "I am back." Kirito stated simply as more players started to spawn into Sword Art Online. Kirito started to run towards the market area to purchase a starting weapon because he already had starting armor.

Kirito did not want to attract any unwanted attention to start off, but of course he failed because he navigated the city with ease while the others got lost. Little did he know that he caught two players attention as he did.

One of the players name Klein took off after Kirito in hopes that he would teach him a few things about Sword Art Online. When Klein finally caught up to Kirito he called out to him, "Hey wait up!" Klein stopped in front of the now turned around Kirito. He looked at Kirito and saw he had long dark hair with black and looked to be in his late teens. "Hey you look like you know your way around. You were in the beta weren't you?" Klein asked.

"Um yeah. I guess I should have acted more confused if I didn't want to get noticed." Kirito grumbled the last part so Klein wouldn't hear him. He looked at the man in front of him who was hunched over out of breath from running. He had long red hair a bit of a beard and a bandana wrapped around his head.

"Hey man lucky you and the name is Klein, but I need to ask you something." Klein told Kirito.

"My name is Kirito and what do you need?" Kirito asked Klein hoping to get rid of this guy.

"This is my first time I have played SAO and I was hoping a beta guy like you could teach me a few things." He asked Kirito clapping his hands and bowing his head slightly to show he was begging me.

"Alright let's_ Ah!" Kirito turned around and almost walked into a girl that was standing there. She had orange hair that went down to her waist and orange eyes with a braid going around the back of her head. She had on a red and white skirt with a metal plate over her heart. From what Kirito could tell she was his age. "Um, hey can I help you with something?" Kirito asked.

"Yeah you guys can. This is the first game I have ever played besides for a few phone games and I need some help to know how to play." She told us blushing a bit in embarrassment.

"Why did you start with Sword Art Online then? I would have started with an easier game." Klein asked her stepping up beside Kirito with a dreamy look on his face after looking at the girl.

"My brother bought it and had to go on a business trip so he let me try it out." She told the two guys and looked at Klein's face. "And you stop looking at me like that!"

"S-sorry." Klein flinched at her mini outburst.

"Ok we will help, but what is your avatar name?" Kirito asked the girl.

"My name is Asuna and you two are?"

"Kirito."

Klein stiffened and said, "I am Klein, twenty-two, and looking for a_ ow!" Klein fell over in pain after Asuna kicked him in the balls.

"Klein get up you can't feel pain and stop acting so weird." Kirito told him shaking his head.

"Oh yeah that's right and sorry about that." Klein said standing up rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Follow me we are going to get you guys a weapon. So what were you guys thinking of getting?" Kirito asked them.

"Something I can afford, but later on I am going to get items to be a samurai." Klein said proudly as if being a samurai was something awesome.

"And what about you Asuna?" Kirito asked her.

"I don't know what type of weapons there even is." She said sadly.

"Judging by your body type and my guess is you are fast so I would recommend a rapier." Kirito told Asuna.

"What weapon is that?" she asked as they arrived at a weapons merchant shop.

Kirito sighed remembering that she is a total newb. "It is a type of sword meant for stabbing and generally they are lighter than normal swords."

"Ok I will try that."

After we were done equipping ourselves with weapons we started towards the fields outside of the City of Beginnings. Kirito bought the best sword he could at the time and had it sheathed on his back. Asuna has a rapier on her side and Klein had a short sword with a curved point strapped to his waist.

The three players walked through the fields until they saw a big group of boar spawn. "Ok this should be a good group to practice on." Kirito told his companions. "Klein you go first since you are probably more experienced in video games."

"Got it, Kirito." Klein said confidently as he walked forward drawing his weapon. He ran at a boar and sliced it on its side leaving a ride line indicating he hit the boar and did damage. Kirito looked at the boar's health and saw the attack only put it into the yellow. The boar turned around and charged into Klein knocking him back and only doing a bit of damage.

"Try again Klein. It will be harder this time because you agitated it so you cannot do a surprise attack." Kirito told Klein.

Klein tried rushing the beast, but the boar charged and hit Klein before he could swing at the boar. "Oh come on; this is tuff." Klein complained from his spot lying in the grass.

"Use a Sword Skill." Kirito told him.

Klein sat up and looked at him. "How do you use a Sword Skill?"

"Put your sword in a preferred motion and let the system take over and do the rest. If it is used right it is an almost guarantee hit." As he was saying this Kirito picked up a rock activating a sword skill with it and threw it at the boar hitting it the butt, barely even doing a sliver of damage.

"Oh I get it." Klein exclaimed and raised his short sword. The sword glowed red and he in one swift and very fast motion Klein flew by the boar and left a red line on the boar. Kirito and Asuna watched as the boar's HP gage dropped to zero and the boar exploded into pixels.

"Yeah!" Klein yelled as the result screen came up telling the amount of col, XP, and any items they got from the battle.

"Nice job Klein now it is your turn Asuna." Kirito told Asuna as he turned to her. Judging by her face she was nervous about how this will go, but Kirito gave her a reassuring smile. After that she drew her rapier.

Asuna ran at the nearest boar and activated a Sword Skill **Linear **making her rapier glow a light green. Kirito was surprised that she got it on her first try while moving. He looked at the boar's HP gage drop to low in the red zone. Asuna was in the Post Motion state for a second as the boar turned around. "Ah!" Asuna yelped not expecting it to survive that and swung her rapier that did not do much damage but was enough to kill the boar.

When the results screen popped up Asuna gave a little giggle of delight. "Nice job Asuna. Did better than Klein here." I congratulated her and jabbing a thumb in Klein's direction.

"Hey she got to watch me first so she knew how to do it." Klein whined.

"Typical boy, always whining." Kirito heard Asuna mutter as she shook her head.

"Ok now it is my turn." Kirito told them excitedly. He bent over and grabbed a rock to throw. Kirito activated a Sword Skill and threw the rock hitting a boar in the side. He unsheathed his sword from his back and held it at the ready as the pissed off boar charged Kirito. Kirito held his sword horizontally to block the charge. With his sword he pushed up the boar making it rear back on its hind legs. Kirito quickly activated the Sword Skill **Horizontal**. His glowing blue blade sliced right across the boar's chest and killed it making the boar explode into pixels.

Kirito waited a second and the results screen popped up. He was not surprised to see he did not get much col or XP because it was the weakest mob in the game. "Ok guy let's go kill some more boars!" Kirito shouted raising my sword in the air receiving a cheer of approval in response.

For the next few hours the three players fought every mob they saw. As they walked towards a cliff that gave a good view of the First Floor each of them checked their levels and XP. Kirito won as the highest level followed by Asuna and then Klein who claims the game probably gives more XP to girl players as an excuse why Asuna is stronger than him.

Kirito is at level two with three thousand one hundred col. His skills so far are: One-handed Sword, and detection.

Asuna was at level one with twenty XP to go before she reaches level two. She has two thousand nine hundred fifty col. Her skills are: One-handed Rapier, and Sprint.

Klein was at level one with forty-eight XP to go before level two and he has two thousand nine hundred col. Klein's skills is: Two-handed Sword, and Searching.

The three stopped at the edge of the cliff to admire the view. Klein sat down as Kirito and Asuna remained standing next to each other. "Now I see why all of you guys like these games." Asuna told them.

"I know they are amazing! I still can't believe that we are in a game. Every time I look around I feel like I am in the real world, but in a weird area." Klein said looking around.

"I agree with both of you. In here I feel more alive than I did in the real world. In Aincrad I can do what I want when I want. I am not bound by the laws of our world, but by the laws of Aincrad." Kirito said.

"Well guys I have to log out because I have a pizza ordered for five thirty and I need to eat." Klein told the other two.

"Yeah I have to log out too." Asuna said.

"And I make three of us." Kirito added and opened his menu. At once they all went into the section to log out, but there was no log out button.

"What the? Where is the log out button?" Klein asked Kirito.

"Am I in the wrong section?" Asuna asked him as well.

"No we are all in the right section of the menu, but the log out button is gone. Every time I played in the beta it was right here. I doubt even if it was going from beta to alpha something like this would be forgotten. Something is definitely not right." Kirito said in a very serious tone.

"Yeah if this is a bug the server people are probably freaking out over the biggest bug of all time." Klein chuckled.

"Isn't the biggest bug of all time some type of spider?" Asuna asked them. Both of the boys looked at her and did a major face palm.

"Asuna when a gamer is talking about a game bug it isn't really a bug. What we mean by a bug is an in game error. Sometimes they are small things like lagging in a certain area, but no log out button is unheard of." Kirito told Asuna.

"Oh that would make a lot more sense, and Klein it is five twenty-five." Asuna said.

"Aw crap. They better fix this bug now or my pizza is going to get cold." Klein complained.

"To bad. Haven't you eaten cold pizza before or heard of a microwave?" Kirito asked Klein looking at him like he was an idiot.

"Yes, but fresh pizza is the best." Klein countered. Kirito was about to say something back when a bell started ringing. All three of them looked towards the City of Beginnings where the bell was ringing from. After a few moments of silence the three of them were engulfed in a blue light. When the light died down the three of them and all of the other Sword Art Online players were standing in the central plaza in the City of Beginnings.

"Kirito, what is going on?" Asuna asked Kirito and took a step closer to him.

"I don't know, but somehow everyone was force teleported here. My guess is that it is for the Opening Ceremony." Kirito told her.

"Hopefully the GM will say something about the log out button being gone." Klein added in.

"Look up it is about to begin." Kirito told the other two as the entire sky started to get covered in **WARNING **and **SYSTEM ANNOUNCMENT** blocks. When the entire sky was filled the GM appeared, but the weird part was that he had no face.

"Welcome players to my world." The robed man started. "I am Akihiko Kayaba creator of the Nervegear and Sword Art Online. I have come to realize that the log out button from your main menu is missing. This is not a bug, but a feature in Sword Art Online. You cannot log out of Sword Art Online nor have the Nervegear removed from your head. If someone tries to remove the Nervegear from your head the Nervegear will send a signal using microwave chips to shock and destroy your brain. I have warned the proper authorities of this and despite my warning two hundred thirteen players are now dead. Also if you are killed in Sword Art Online you will also be killed by your Nervegear in the real world."

"You can't be serious." Asuna whispered.

"All of what he said can be done. I don't want to believe it, but I can." Kirito told her.

"Why the hell would Kayaba do this?" Klein asked.

"Let him finish." Kirito told them.

"You may be wondering why would I do this to all of you. The reason is that I want to have a world of my own design and intervene in it. Players I have made it possible for you to escape Sword Art Online. The only way is to conquer all one hundred floors of Aincrad and beat the bosses. Once you have beaten the boss on the One Hundredth Floor the game will be cleared and you will be logged out. "

"All one hundred floors are impossible!" One guy shouted.

"You are crazy."

"I need to get out of here. I can't live here because you don't have pizza!"

"I want my mommy."

"I have left all of you a present in your item storage. Please check the item storage and use the item." Kayaba told us. Every player went into their inventory and took out the mirror. They all looked at the mirror until a blue light covered all of the players. Once the light was gone all of the players were standing there but looked completely different. Kirito looked about fourteen with a bit of a feminine face and black hair that partially covered his eyes. Klein had shorter hair and a bit of a scruffier look to him. Asuna changed the least. She was about two inches shorter, and had a little bit longer hair.

"What the hell? Why do I look the same as I do in the real world?" Klein asked no one in particular.

"How do they even know our faces and body type?" Asuna asked Kirito.

"The Nervegear helmet is big enough and covers enough of our faces to know what they look like. And body type is probably the calibration you have to do." I guessed.

"Those makes sense, but why give us our actual looks?" Asuna asked.

"I don't know, but he will probably tell us or what he says will help us make sense of this." Kirito said to Asuna.

"Players this is the end of the Sword Art Online tutorial and welcome to your new reality. I wish all of you the best of luck." Kayaba finished and vanished.

"Guys we need to go now." Kirito told them. In an instant the three of them ran off into a nearby ally.

"What is it Kirito?" Asuna asked Kirito.

"Now that this is a death game it is more important than ever to get stronger. The only way to do that is to get to the next village which is Horunka. If we try we can make it there in about one hour and kill all of the mobs on the way. If we don't leave now most of the areas around the city will be cleared. I can get us there without any problems. Who is with me?" Kirito asked them.

"I am in. It is better than doing nothing here in the City of Beginnings." Asuna told Kirito.

"Klein, how about you, are you coming or not?"

"Well Kirito the thing is I can't go with you. Before you ask why it is because of some friends of mine are still back in the plaza. We were friends IRL and played together in a few other games. We bought some of the SAO hard copies and were going to be in a guild together like in the other games. I can't ask you two to come with me so I will tell you this. Meet you in Horunka." Klein said to us.

"Ok I will see you then Klein." Kirito told Klein.

With that Klein ran off back towards the plaza as Kirito and Asuna ran off through the city.

Kirito and Asuna were running along the path towards Horunka when they saw a pack of Dire Wolves in front of them. They both drew their weapons and attacked. As one wolf jumped at Kirito he side stepped and activated a Sword Skill **Vertical**, and left a large slice on the wolf. Behind Kirito he heard the wolf explode. Another wolf jumped at Asuna with its mouth open but received a **Linear **Sword Skill down the throat killing it.

The remaining wolves split up and put two on each opponent. The two wolves that choose Kirito ran at him, but did not jump. Kirito did a normal slash at the wolves and cut them both on the head. In the second Kirito had he used a **Horizontal** Sword Skill on the first wolf then a **Vertical **on the next killing them both.

Asuna had equal luck with her wolves after she used two **Linear** on them. When Asuna finished he last wolf the results screen popped up for both of them. Asuna just got enough XP to reach level two and now has three thousand one hundred twenty col. Kirito did not grow a level but gained one hundred col making him have three thousand two hundred col.

After another half hour of running the two finally reached the town of Horunka. After facing all of the mobs on the way Kirito reached level three and so did Asuna. "Ok Asuna I hope you don't mind, but I need to take a quest here to get a new sword called the **Anneal Blade.** I used the sword in the beta and it was my favorite sword."

"Alright what do we have to do?" She asked Kirito.

"Get a cure for a NPC's sick daughter. The quest is called the Secret Medicine of the Forest." Kirito told Asuna.

"Why not, but you will owe me later on." Asuna said.

"Deal." Kirito agreed. Kirito then lead Asuna to the NPC's house. Kirito knocked on the door of the house and waited for a moment as the NPC answered the door.

"Come in if you would like. I always love to have guests." The NPC invited them as the two walked in.

"Would you like some water? I am sorry that I don't have any food for you." She asked them. Kirito noticed that something was cooking on the stove and a small smile appeared on his face. 'Just like the beta.' "That would be kind of you." Kirito responded as he heard a cough coming from the nearby room.

Asuna noticed the sad smile on the NPC's face and asked, "What is wrong?"

"I am afraid that my daughter is sick. She has come down with an incurable disease. Well there is actually only one cure. You have to get the flower from one of the Little Nepents. I am begging the two of you to help me. I have a reward for you if you can get the cure. I have a sword called the **Anneal Blade**. I have no use for it and I would love to give it to you." The NPC woman told us. When she finished a quest popped up and prompted Kirito to either accept or deny. Kirito pressed the accept button. "Thank you so much, but I must ask you to hurry because I don't think she has much time left."

"Come on Asuna let's go." Kirito told Asuna. The two of them left and started off towards the forest outside of Horunka. "Little Nepents spawn in this forest, but the flower has a low drop rate so this may take a little while."

For the next three hours Asuna and Kirito hunted and slayed Little Nepents. They received many drops from the mobs, but none of them were the flower. Kirito and Asuna grew to level five from all of the hunting. By doing these things they both leveled up their combat and Kirito's Detection skills.

Finally after facing a small group of Little Nepents one finally dropped one. "Yes! I got the flower!" Kirito exclaimed and did a little dance making Asuna giggle at him.

"Alright you got your stupid flower now let's go." Asuna chuckled as Kirito continued to dance.

"Fine and I am leaving because I want my sword again." Kirito pouted making Asuna giggle again. As the two started their walk back towards Horunka they encountered another group of Little Nepents. The two of them rushed the group and started killing them with ease.

Once Asuna was on her last one Kirito turned around just in time to see Asuna make a huge mistake. The last Little Nepent had a little fruit on its head. Kirito remembered from the beta that, that fruit if damaged attracts a horde of Little Nepents. Asuna with her rapier stabbed straight through the Little Nepent, but damaged the fruit in the process.

"RUN!" Kirito yelled at her. "That Little Nepent attracts a lot more when the fruit is damaged!" He shouted at her as they started to run. In a matter of a minute the two were overrun by Little Nepents barely able to hold them off.

In another minute the Little Nepents stopped coming, but it didn't matter because it looked like there were over one hundred of them. Kirito and Asuna kept hacking, slashing, and stabbing at the mobs. Kirito new that they wouldn't last much longer because a few more hits and his sword break.

A Little Nepent jumped at Kirito which he had to use a **Horizontal** Sword Skill on in defense. When the Sword Skill was finished Kirito's sword shattered. When this happened Kirito thought it would be the end of him, but as a group of Little Nepents jumped at him a green light started to glow on his right. A huge battle axe was swung right in front of Kirito killing all of the Little Nepents that jumped at him.

Kirito looked up at his savior and he had to look high. In front of him was a huge bald black guy. When Kirito means huge he does not mean fat. This guy was very muscular and was probably well over six feet tall maybe six feet five inches or so. The man and Asuna took out some more Little Nepents until they started to flee.

"Hey kid you alright." The big guy asked me as he slung his axe onto his back.

"Yeah and thanks for saving me there. The name is Kirito by the way." Kirito introduced himself.

"Kirito, huh. Name's Agil, and who is this fine young lady here?" Agil asked Asuna.

"I am Asuna and it is nice to meet you Agil." Asuna greeted Agil.

"Well it is nice talking to you guys, but we need to get back to the village before some of those monsters come back." Agil told them as we started walking back towards the village. On the way back Agil tried to make some small talk with them, but stopped after he decided they are not the most social people.

Once they reached Horunka Kirito and Agil shook hands and parted ways. Asuna and Kirito started walking toward the NPC woman's house that had the **Anneal Blade**. Once they reached the door way and were about to knock the both felt something pointy pressing into the back of their necks. "Hand over the flower or die." A voice came from behind them.

**Author's Note: Well everyone that was the first chapter of the Sword Art Online Alternate. I hope you all enjoyed this story so far, but this is only the beginning. I plan on writing at least two chapters about every floor of Aincrad. I will also write about some breaks that Kirito and Asuna have from clearing floors so this story will probably be over two hundred chapters long. I plan on taking a break every ten floors on this story so I do not have to push myself too hard to get these chapters out. Also I am not going to have Kirito fight Heathcliff early because I have some ideas for latter floors. By the way I don't know if I mentioned it, but this will be the most similar to the original series, but the rest of the chapters will be a lot different trust me. Now everyone stay tuned for more.**

**Follow, Favorite, Review!**

**~ColtonTheCreeper**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Hello again and welcome to Sword Art Online Alternate chapter 2. I would like to thank you for checking out my story. This chapter will be the second chapter for Floor One. This will be longer than chapter one because it will have more content and will cover all two months on Floor One. The reason I might be slow on updating this story is because these chapters will be so long. I would also like to thank everyone who gave me reviews about things I can improve on in this story. And David you said that my descriptions were vague, but I am not the greatest at descriptions. If you want a good description look up the person's name after Sword Art Online in Google Images. Also if anyone would like to send me ideas for future quests or activities Kirito and Asuna can complete I would be happy to consider using them. Now without further ado let's begin chapter two.**

**Disclaimer: I wish I owned Sword Art Online, but sadly I cannot.**

Chapter Two: First Boss

When Kirito and Asuna heard that they were both thinking two different things. Asuna was thinking, 'Oh crap, I don't want to die.' And Kirito was thinking, 'These idiots don't know anything about Sword Art Online. I doubt they even know that all towns are Safe Zones.'

Kirito turned around and saw two cloaked figures both with swords pointed at them. "No I will not give it to you. Go ahead try and kill us." Kirito said with a smug smile on his face. Asuna looked at him like he was crazy. The thief that had his sword pointed at Kirito looked shocked, but he activated a Sword Skill and swung at Kirito. What surprised both the thieves and Asuna was that Kirito did not move an inch as the sword moved towards his body. When the sword connected Kirito was knocked back a bit, but was not injured at all.

"What the hell?! You should be injured if not dead from that." The thief exclaimed in surprise. Asuna and the thief that did not attack were too shocked to say anything as Kirito started to laugh.

"So you think you can hurt me? That is a hilarious thought considering where we are. Look around you we are in the village Horunka." Kirito chuckled, but the other three were still confused.

"Yeah so what if we are in this village, that attack still should have hit and damaged you!" The attacking thief yelled at Kirito.

"Wrong again. I thought it was common knowledge that all towns, villages, cities, and related places were Safe Zones. You could attack me all day and we wouldn't get anywhere." Kirito replied confidently.

"Dude let's back off. We can't force them to give it to us." The other thief told his friend.

"Fine, but you better watch your back kid because next time you won't be so lucky." The attack thief threatened Kirito. With that the two turned around and walked off towards the forest.

"What were you thinking Kirito? He could have killed you!" Asuna asked Kirito extremely pissed off.

"I knew I wouldn't die. I am a Beta Tester remember. If I forgot something like Safe Zones then I would be the worst Beta Tester to ever exist." Kirito told her and knocked on the NPC woman's door.

In seconds the NPC woman opened the door with a big smile on her face. "Good you are back! Do you have the flower?" She asked them with a hopeful look on her face as she ushered them inside.

"Of course just give me a second." Kirito told her and opened his menu. After tapping a few buttons he summoned the flower and gave it to the woman.

"Thank you so much. After I have cooked this up for my daughter I will get you your reward. As I do you can sit down if you like?" She told them as she ran off to the kitchen to make the medicine.

"Seriously though Kirito you need to be more careful. This is no longer just a game; this is now a game of life or death." Asuna warned Kirito as soon as the NPC was out of hearing range.

"I already told you I knew I wouldn't die because I played the beta." Kirito replied.

"What if it changed from beta to the alpha? Kayaba took out the log out button and made it so if we die here we die in real life. If he can do that he can change something like that." Asuna tried to make him see sense that things can easily change.

"I know that Asuna, I doubt Kayaba would take something like that out. Yes he allows us to die, but I doubt he would want any mass player killings in cities." Kirito told her.

"Kirito start taking this more seriously. Right now you and Klein are my only friends and you are the only one with me. I don't want a friend to die in front of me so please don't be so stupid." Asuna begged him.

"Fine and that reminds me I forgot to do this." Kirito opened his menu and sent Asuna a friend request. She hesitated for a second then hit 'Accept'. Kirito then tapped a few more times in his menu sending Asuna a party request as well.

"What is a party, because if it is an actual party I am going to slap you?" Asuna asked Kirito.

"Oh yeah, once again I forgot you were a total noob. A party is basically groups where you can see each other's HP and stuff like that bellow your HP. Also please don't slap me, but why would you slap me?" Kirito asked cautiously and prepared to protect himself from Asuna.

"We just found out that we could die in this game! I do not want to party if someone just told me it is likely that I will die!" Asuna screamed at him in a whisper so no one else would hear.

"Yeah I guess that makes sense. Are you going to accept it or not?"

"Accept what?"

"The party or group request."

"Oh yeah I forgot about that already." Asuna pressed the 'accept' on her invite and they both saw another HP gage appear below their own with the other person's name. "How long will it take for the NPC lady to come back?" Asuna asked.

Kirito did not answer accept for raising his hand counting down five seconds. When the last finger came down the NPC woman walked into the room carrying the **Anneal Blade**. "Here is your reward. I am in your debt for saving my daughter. If there is anything you need just ask." She told them handing Kirito the **Anneal Blade**.

When the sword left her hands the results menu popped up in front of Kirito. 'Congratulations on completing the Secret Medicine of the Forest quest!' When that message closed two screens popped up, one in front of Kirito and the other in front of Asuna. The each got four hundred col and some XP. Kirito's screen also told him that he acquired the **Anneal Blade**.

"Alright Asuna it is getting late, let's go find an inn to stay at." Kirito told Asuna after he equipped the **Anneal Blade**.

"Don't you want to do some other quests?" Asuna asked him.

"Yes I do, but all of the quests just give you col and some XP. They can wait until the morning." Kirito said as they walked out of the house.

"Those are useful, but didn't you say that most quests are limited?" Asuna asked Kirito.

"Yes I did. The major quests can be done usually only once or twice, but quests like hunting a monster, finding a missing item, or doing some chores for an NPC have nearly unlimited times to be done." Kirito informed her.

"That makes sense. Let's get up early tomorrow to do some quests!" Asuna exclaimed excitedly.

"Alright I can live with that." Kirito agreed with her and gave a little chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Asuna asked as they walked into an inn.

"A few hours ago you were scared to even fight a monster. Now you are more excited than I am to do just that." Kirito told her as he walked up to the man at the front desk. "Hello we would like to rent a room."

"Ah hello, a room for one night is fifty col, but our deal is two hundred fifty col for one week." The NPC inn worker offered them.

"We will take the one week." Kirito told the NPC.

"Great, I will get you your room key." The NPC walked off into a back room and came back a minute later with two keys. "Here is one for you young man and one for you young lady." He said as he gave a key to each of them.

"Thank you." Asuna told the man.

"Oh and before I forget you are in room eight. Enjoy your stay!" He called out as the two walked up the steps and down the hall. The two stopped in front of room eight's door.

"Here is our home for the next week." Asuna said as she opened the door. The room was a small room with two queen sized beds pushed up against the wall to their left, a table with four chairs, and a couch. On the opposite wall from the door was a window overlooking the village.

Kirito walked over to the bed closest to the window. Kirito sat down opening up his menu to take off his gear leaving him in only his blue shirt and pants. "Why is there no bathroom?" Asuna asked Kirito with shock in her voice.

"This is a game Asuna. In video games you never have to go to the bathroom." Kirito replied as he pulled back the sheets on his bed.

"What about taking a shower or taking a bath? They have to have showers or baths, right?" She asked Kirito and shuddered at the thought at not cleaning for however long they would be in Sword Art Online.

"There are some, but they are extremely rare. Most of the players are males so they don't care about how dirty they are. The ones that do care about staying clean usually take a swim in a lake or river." Kirito told her.

"Well that is stupid." Asuna grumbled as she changed into her casual outfit to sleep in which was just a shirt and really shorts.

"Not really because most of the time dirt disappears after a while. Now can I go to sleep?" Kirito asked her annoyed at all of the dumb questions.

"Fine, but we are going shopping tomorrow after we make some more col." Asuna told him as she lay down in her bed.

"For what?" Kirito asked not having a clue about what they need.

"Clothes of course. A girl needs more than one outfit." Asuna said with an evil smile knowing Kirito will hate shopping.

"The bad sides of traveling with a girl. They love shopping and clothes." Kirito grumbled as he also lay down in his bed.

**Time: 7:00 A.M**

**Place: Horunka**

Kirito sat up yawning and stretching in his bed. What he expected to see was his room in the real world, but what he saw was his room in the inn. After a second Kirito remembered how he got there, who the girl in the other bed was, and everything else that happened the previous day.

"Wake up Asuna, you said you wanted to get up early and do some quests." Kirito yawned again as he got out of bed.

"A few more minutes." She grumbled as she rolled over in bed.

"Get up." Kirito commanded throwing a pillow at her.

"Kirito, this means war!" Asuna yelled jumping out of bed with a pillow in her hands.

"Ah!" Kirito screamed as Asuna started to beat him up with the pillow. Kirito was thankful for the games mechanics that did not allow you to hear things outside of this room as he kept screaming from Asuna's onslaught. "Stop Asuna!"

"Apologize from waking me from my beauty sleep!" She commanded him while she kept on hitting him with the pillow.

"I am sorry for waking you from your so important beauty sleep." Kirito apologized.

"Good boy, I accept your apology." Asuna told Kirito finally stop hitting him.

"Thank you!" Kirito yelled in delight.

"Where do we eat breakfast?" Asuna asked.

"We buy it at a store and eat it somewhere." Kirito said as he opened his menu equipping his gear.

"Really aren't there restaurants, or taverns?" Asuna asked as she also equipped her gear.

"Oh yeah I forgot about those. In the beta most of the time I was on the move so I just bought something and ate it on the road." Kirito remembered.

"Good because if I have to live off store food I will go crazy." Asuna told him.

"Well you can buy ingredients and cook your own food." Kirito said as they opened the door.

"You can cook?" Asuna asked in excitement.

"No I can't, but people can get the Cooking Skill." Kirito replied as they exited the inn.

"Yay! I love cooking!" Asuna exclaimed happily. "But why can't you cook?"

"I can, but I am not that great at it. Also I would fill that slot with another skill." Kirito told her as they walked through the village looking for a tavern. "And before you ask you have to be level eight before you get another skill."

"Oh well I want to get questing soon so I can get that skill." Asuna said firmly.

"Alright here is a tavern so let's eat." Kirito told Asuna.

An hour later the two of them walked out of the tavern. "Where do we find the quest NPCs?" Asuna asked Kirito looking around.

"Just walk around and look for a NPC that does not look normal or has and exclamation point." Kirito answered.

"I say we try a farm because monsters would probably bother them a lot." Asuna suggested.

"Good idea and I remember that there were a few quests over there." Kirito said pointing in the direction.

"Alright let's go the sooner we get there the sooner we can get it done and start a new one." Asuna called out to Kirito as she ran in that direction.

Kirito shook his head and ran off after her. Kirito could not catch up to Asuna because she has the Sprint Skill and she has it leveled a bit. Kirito on the other hand does not have the skill yet and was slower naturally.

When the two arrived at the farm they saw a quest NPC outside of a barn. They walked over and introduced themselves, "Hi my name is Asuna and this is my friend Kirito."

"Hello my friends, I am sorry to bother you with this but I need your help. A pack of Dire Wolves has been pestering my animals and destroying my crops. I would appreciate it if you would hunt them down for me."

A screen popped up in front of Asuna telling her to either accept or decline the quest. Without hesitation she pressed 'accept' and the quest began.

"Thank you for doing this for me. Come back when you have killed the pack for your reward." The farmer NPC told them.

"Come on Kirito!" Asuna yelled as she took off towards the woods. Kirito followed her excited to fight and try out the **Anneal Blade** again.

Surprisingly the quest did not take that long because five minutes after entering the forest the two came across the Dire Wolf pack. "Asuna remember these are harder than your average mob because they are a quest mob. Keep your guard up and… don't die."

"Got it now let's toasts these suckers." Asuna said and the two jumped down into the pack. When Kirito landed he activated the **Horizontal** Sword Skill killing the two nearest wolves. Asuna landed and activated the **Linear **Sword Skill killing a wolf. A wolf jumped at Kirito trying to rip his throat open, but received a **Vertical **Sword Skill to the face. He then felt claws scrape across his back and saw his HP bar dip into the yellow zone. Kirito spun around and activated a **Slant **Sword Skill killing the wolf that attacked him.

Kirito quickly looked over at Asuna and saw her working on her third wolf. The last wolf charged at Kirito, but received an **Uppercut** Sword Skill to the side as it tried to evade the attack. The wolf barely survived the attack, but Kirito slashed downward onto the wolf without activating any Sword Skill killing the Dire Wolf.

"Nice job Kirito, your new sword working well for you." Asuna asked as she sheathed her rapier walking over to Kirito.

"Yeah, this sword is way stronger than those crappy swords you buy at a shop." Kirito answered as he closed all of the results screens that popped up in front of him.

"Good for you, but I want a new rapier. Also it is saying that it needs to be repaired." Asuna told him.

"Ok we will stop at a blacksmith shop before_" Kirito was interrupted by a growl echoing through the clearing. When Kirito heard the growl he instantly recognized the monster.

"Kirito, what is that?" Asuna asked with a hit of terror in her voice.

"It is the Alpha Dire Wolf. It is one of the strongest mobs on Floor One." Kirito told her as he unsheathed his sword again. Asuna saw what he was doing and drew her rapier.

In front of them the brush started to shake and a wolf twice as big as one of the Dire Wolves emerged. Its eyes were red and foam was falling from its mouth making it look terrifying. Over its head were a red cursor and the name Alpha Dire Wolf. Next to its head were two green health bars. 'Oh yay, the thing got promoted to a mini boss.' Kirito thought to himself.

The Alpha roared and lunged at Asuna. Asuna was to terrified to move and got clawed against her chest sending her flying into the brush behind them.

"Asuna!" Kirito yelled as he tried to stop the wolf. When she got hit Kirito watched her HP drop into the low red zone, but thankfully she was alive for now.

The Alpha then turned its eyes onto Kirito and lunged at him. Kirito dove to his left just getting missed by the giant wolf. Kirito quickly stood up and stopped a claw attack with his sword. Kirito pushed the wolf up and quickly used a combo with his Sword Skills. From left to right he activated a **Horizontal** Sword Skill and raised his sword a bit and activated a **Slant** diagonally from right to left. Kirito then activated **Uppercut **Sword Skill and when he reached the head of the wolf activated the **Vertical **Sword Skill bringing it down. With all of the attacks the Alpha Dire Wolf still had had half of a HP gage left.

The Alpha swiped at Kirito with its claws and he jumped back receiving a shallow cut on his chest sending his HP into the low green. Kirito quickly checked Asuna's HP and noticed that it is back in the green zone. With Kirito's skills he sensed Asuna was right behind him in the bushes.

When the Alpha tried to slash at Kirito again he knocked up its arms leaving its belly exposed. "Switch!" Kirito called out to Asuna. Asuna jumped out of the bushes and activated a **Linear **Sword Skill stabbing the wolf in the stomach. She pulled her rapier out and ducked under a swipe at her and stabbed the Alpha wolf in the armpit.

Like usual when a boss gets onto the last stretch of health they go berserk. When Asuna jumped back the Alpha Dire Wolf jumped onto her and pinned her to the ground. The Alpha Dire Wolf was about to bite her when Kirito jumped in with an upward **Slant **Sword Skill knocking the wolf away. They were both surprised by the Alpha Dire Wolf's sudden increase in defense.

Asuna stood back up and held her rapier at the ready. Kirito charged the Alpha Dire Wolf again activating a stab Sword Skill and got smacked out of the way by the Alpha Dire Wolf. Kirito flew to the side and landed on the ground. His health was in the low yellow from the attack. The Alpha Dire wolf then jumped up about twenty feet in the air towards Kirito. As the wolf was about to land on Kirito, he stuck his sword up to stab the wolf as he came down.

When the wolf landed it got the **Anneal Blade** stuck through its head, but landed on Kirito sending him into the low red zone with twenty HP left. With his vision red and trying to hold off the wolf from eating him Kirito called out to Asuna, "Asuna! Use a **Linear**. That should be enough to kill him!"

"Already on it!" Asuna yelled back as she jumped into the Alpha Dire Wolf's side with a **Linear **Sword Skill activated. The Alpha Dire Wolf fell off Kirito leaving him with five HP left as the wolf exploded into pixels. 'Congratulations!' appeared above their heads as soon as the Alpha Dire Wolf was completely gone.

In front of both Kirito and Asuna a results screen appeared. Both Kirito and Asuna got enough XP to level up and one thousand col. After they both closed their result screens two more popped up in front of Asuna. 'Congratulations you got the Last Attack Bonus!' After a few seconds that screen closed to reveal another screen telling her what item she got. What Asuna received was a new rapier named the **Wind Fleuret**.

Asuna equipped the new rapier and swung it around a few times. "Nice, I like this better than those starter rapiers. Also it is a good thing I got this because my other rapier just broke."

"Congrats Asuna, but let's not face anymore bosses anytime soon." Kirito told her.

"Why I thought we did good." Asuna asked.

"For starters both of us almost died. Also that is the weakest boss on this floor by far. If we tried that on any other boss we would be dead." Kirito answered as he shivered at the thought of running into anymore bosses.

"That was the weakest?" Asuna shrieked in terror.

"Yep, and let's get back to that NPC farmer for the Col and XP." Kirito told Asuna as they started walking off in the direction. When they arrived at the farm they got their quest reward from the NPC, which was six hundred Col. With all of their earnings they agreed to split it half and half to be fair.

When they were leaving the farm Asuna asked, "What quest should we do now?"

"How about an item searching quest because I do not want to face anymore bosses today." Kirito suggested.

"Alright, we can go back and forth between those two. One is fighting, one searching, one fighting, and one searching. Is that alright with you?"

"Yeah sure let's go to this one over here." Kirito said as they walked over to a quest NPC. The two of them stopped in front of the NPC quest woman and Kirito asked, "Hello ma'am what can I do for you?"

"I need your help finding my purse. I lost it in the forest on the east side of the village." The NPC women told them.

"Alright we will find it for you do not worry." Kirito told her and they left.

As they were walking through Horunka Asuna said out loud, "This is really stupid why we need to find some lady's purse?"

"I don't know, but I agree this is stupid. One of the down sides of Sword Art Online is that it is so big and they don't have that great of quest ideas sometimes." Kirito told her.

"Whatever it is still fun or should be." Asuna chuckled a bit.

"Why did you say should be?" Kirito asked.

"We are in a death game, remember." Asuna said to Kirito.

"That is true we are in a death game." Kirito started as they exited Horunka on the east side. "Even though death is hanging over us and we are trapped like a fly in a spider's web does not mean we cannot have fun. The initial purpose of this game is to enjoy ourselves and that is what we should do. I am not saying we should go and get ourselves killed. What I am saying is that we not let this break our spirit and make us rot away in the Town of Beginnings, but fight so we can escape and return to our families."

Asuna looked at him in shock and then said, "Kirito, you can make quite a speech. You may not be as dark as I thought."

"Oh no, I am dark. Check the wardrobe in my house and you will find a lot of black clothing. Also when we are shopping later I am going to get some black clothes. As some people I know put it, I am a bit emo." Kirito told her.

"You are too social to be emo." Asuna said.

"I barely talk to anybody. Usually when I play games I am a solo player. This is one of the only times I have teamed up with someone." Kirito replied to her comment.

"Really, were you solo in the beta test?" Asuna asked him as they stopped in a clearing.

"Yes and I would have been if I didn't meet you and Klein." Kirito answered as he bent down to pick up a purse. "And here is her purse."

"Well that was_" Asuna stopped when the two of them turned around to see the two cloaked figures before along with four other cloaked people. All of them were armed and had their weapons ready. Kirito and Asuna drew their weapons and got ready to fight.

"Well Kirito, Asuna I think you know what I want." The leader of the cloaked men said. Both Kirito and Asuna recognized him as the men who tried to steal the medicine. "Hand over the **Anneal Blade **and no one gets hurt."

"How do you know our names?" Kirito asked in an angry voice.

"I have my ways and resources. Now hand it over." The man tried again.

"Come and get it." Kirito stated calmly and prepared to fight. The men jumped forward and attacked Kirito. "Asuna stay out of this, this isn't your fight!"

Kirito was dodging and blocking all of the attacks that were thrown at him, but could not go on offense without becoming an orange player. When one of the cloaked men stabbed at Kirito, Kirito let him skim his arm. When the damage was dealt to Kirito the player turned orange. A few of the other attackers tried to hit Kirito, but he just let their blades skim him turning them orange. Within a few minutes all of the attacking players except the leader were orange.

"Give up Kirito, you are outnumbered." The lead attacker told him.

"And you are out leveled." Kirito responded and lunged at the nearest player finally going on offense. Kirito activated a Sword Skill and drove his sword through the other player's shoulder. Everyone was shocked as the player's HP dropped into the low yellow just from one attack. The player screamed in pain and surprise. He fell to the ground and crawled away as quickly as he could from Kirito.

"Who's next?" Kirito asked.

"You bastard!" One of the players shouted and jumped at Kirito from behind with an over the head downward strike. As quick as lightning Kirito spun around activating the **Horizontal **Sword Skill slashing the player across the chest sending his HP into the mid yellow zone.

"What the hell?" The leader asked. "It is impossible for someone to be that strong and do that much damage. We are all level two!"

"Yeah and I'm level five. I have leveled up my One-handed Sword and plus I have some of my skills from real life. From what I have seen none of you are that great of fighters. So if you want my **Anneal Blade** let's make a wager. We have a one on one duel. You win, you get my **Anneal Blade**. If I win, you leave me and Asuna alone." Kirito suggested to the leader.

"Alright, be ready to hand over that **Anneal Blade **after this." The leader replied cockily.

Kirito just smirked and navigated through his menu and sent the leader a duel invite. The leader accepted it and set it so that the first one in the red losses. The screen above their heads appeared showing both of their faces and names. 'Kibaou, so that is his name.' Kirito thought.

Kibaou drew his sword and got ready to fight just as the timer reached zero. Kibaou launched himself at Kirito with an over the head downward swing. Kirito didn't even raise his sword; all he did was side step sticking his leg out tripping Kibaou making him face planted in the dirt.

Over on Kirito's right he heard Asuna giggle a bit at Kibaou's face when he stood up. It was a look of pure rage. Kibaou charged at Kirito sending a quick wave of attacks at him. Kirito was not fazed as he stood there blocking everything Kibaou threw at him. Kibaou tried to stab Kirito, but once again Kirito side stepped and stabbed his sword at Kibaou cutting his cheek barely doing any damage.

Kibaou roared and was about to charge Kirito, but things turned on him. Kirito charged Kibaou attacking him in frenzy. There was nothing Kibaou could have done as Kirito continued his onslaught. When Kirito finally slowed it was to deliver the final blow. Kirito knocked up Kibaou's sword and in one swift movement activated a downward **Slant **Sword Skill leaving a red line from his left shoulder all the way to his right leg. Kibaou flew backward as his health dropped into the red zone.

'Winner!' popped up next to Kirito's name on the screen above them. Kibaou sat up and asked, "What? How did you do that? There is no way you could have dealt that much damage so easily."

"I have the strongest sword on this floor, and I am twice as strong as you level wise." Kirito answered as he turned around walking off towards the town. "Come on Asuna!" Kirito called out to her.

When the two were far enough away Asuna turned to Kirito and asked, "I can tell you were going easy on Kibaou. How are you such a good sword fighter?"

"When I was young my grandfather trained me and my sister in kendo. He said our entire family has a long history of kendo fighters. I trained a lot with him and my sister until I quit. I also picked up a few things in the beta." Kirito answered.

"Why did you quit kendo? You look like you would have been amazing at it." Asuna questioned.

"My grandfather was a rough teacher. Also when I was ten I learned that my sister and my mom were actually my aunt and my cousin. From then on I distanced myself from them and started online gaming. I am not proud of that decision and if I could I would try to make things right this instant." Kirito told Asuna.

"Oh." Was all Asuna said as they continued walking in silence.

For the rest of the day until five o'clock they continued questing. They did not run into anymore bosses or players trying to get Kirito's **Anneal Blade**. The Asuna was shocked to find that after level five it is a lot harder to level up. Kirito reasoned that Kayaba designed it that way so the players can level up to a safe level and then begin the hard part of the game.

"Finally, shopping time!" Asuna cheered as they walked through Horunka earning a few looks from other players.

"Yay." Kirito said sarcastically with a lot less enthusiasm than Asuna.

"Come on cheer up Kirito. You can get new clothes and other stuff to you know." Asuna told him.

"Yeah I know. I am going to by some clothes then look for a blacksmith shop to level up my **Anneal Blade** once." Kirito told her.

"Ok, now let's get shopping." Asuna said as they walked into the store. Asuna began running around picking up everything she liked and acted like all of the col she earned was burning a hole in her pocket. Kirito on the other hand just walked around and looked at some black clothes. Asuna got things that ranged from shorts all the way to jackets, and she got multiples of everything. Of course the clothes she got looked different, but Kirito did not understand the need for all of the clothes. All Kirito got was a few black shirts, black jeans, and a long black coat for the winter floors. Kirito's total was four hundred col which he thought was a little expensive. Asuna's total was one thousand three hundred twenty five col.

When they were done shopping both of them went into a dressing room to change into something else. Kirito changed into a long sleeve black V-neck and black jeans. Asuna changed into a pair of blue skinny jeans and a red long sleeve shirt. Before they walked out of the store they put on their armor and equipped their weapons.

"Hey Kirito how much did you spend?" Asuna asked as they walked out.

"Four hundred col." Kirito stated.

"Really, that is all you spent. I spent one thousand three hundred twenty five col." Asuna told Kirito proudly. What Kirito did was spit like they do in cartoons, but did not work out so well because he wasn't drinking anything. 'If I was drinking something I would have looked like I was using Hydro Cannon from Pokémon.' Kirito thought to himself.

"You are crazy Asuna. You know that." Kirito commented.

"No I am not! All girls in this game would do the same thing!" Asuna defended herself.

"Sure they would." Kirito chuckled at Asuna's red face.

"You would spend that much on a weapon or armor." Asuna told Kirito.

"Yes I would because that would help keep me alive unlike regular clothes." Kirito countered.

"But_" Asuna began, but was cut off by Kirito.

"No buts. I have won this argument." Kirito interrupted. Asuna pouted the rest of the way to the blacksmith shop mumbling things about stupid boys. "I would like to upgrade my sword." Kirito told the shop keeper as he walked up to it.

"Alright, let's see your sword." The NPC smith said. Kirito took his sword out of its sheath and placed it in front of the NPC smith. "Oh wow, an **Anneal Blade**. This is an extremely rare and good sword. Yes I will upgrade it for you for six hundred col."

Kirito nearly winced at the price, but accepted it. "Oh and you think I spend a lot of money?" Asuna asked him.

"You still spend more, and it is worth it. The currently best one handed sword you can get and it is rare." Kirito responded.

"Alright, it is upgraded. I could do another upgrade for half off." The NPC smith offered.

"Go for it." Kirito responded, but the NPC just stood there with a questioning look. "Upgrade it please." Kirito tried and this time the NPC smith went and started another upgrade.

"Why did the NPC not do what you said the first time?" Kirito was asked by Asuna.

"NPCs only react to certain phrases or questions." Kirito answered her.

"That makes sense, so I will have to remember not to say 'Go for it' to an NPC." Asuna said.

"Yep."

A few minutes later the NPC smith came back with the **Anneal Blade**. "Here you are and have a nice day!" The NPC smith told them as Kirito sheathed his sword.

"Come on Asuna, let's go back to the inn." Kirito told her.

"Finally, I can lie down." Kirito sighed in relief as he plopped himself down on his bed.

"Agreed." Asuna sighed from her bed.

Kirito opened his menu and navigated through it and selected the Private Message button. Kirito put in the receiver's name Argo and began to type the message. 'Hey Argo it is Kirito. I am still alive. I need to know where the Floor One boss room is. It can be just like old time. Me asking for information and paying you. Or me gathering information for you and you paying me. – Kirito.'

"What are you doing Kirito?" Asuna asked as Kirito sent the message.

"Sending a message to my info broker from the beta. She has an amazing memory for stuff like this. I was just asking where the Floor One boss room is." Kirito responded.

"Why do you want to know that?"

"So we can head there in a week so we can train in the Floor One Labyrinth. You get quite a bit of XP from the mobs in there." Kirito answered.

"But don't you remember that from the beta?" Asuna questioned.

"I think it was in the tower outside of Tolbana, but I want to make sure it is the right place." Kirito told her as he received a message from Argo.

'Oh hey Kiri-bou, the boss room is in the tower outside of Tolbana. It is a half hour walk away just in case you wanted to know that. I bet you already knew that though. Yeah we can do what we did in the beta as well. So send me one hundred col as payment.' When Kirito finished reading he sighed and sent Argo one hundred col.

"Why does she call you Kiri-bou?" Asuna asked Kirito from right next to him. Kirito did not know she was there so he literally jumped five feet in the air in surprise. After seeing Kirito do this Asuna started laughing so hard like she just heard the funniest joke in the world.

"I have no idea." Kirito grumbled then added, "One of the bad things about increase jumping height of this game. When someone scares you literally jump five feet in the air."

"That is true, but it is really, really funny when that happens."

"Says the one who watched it happen." Kirito countered.

"Whatever now let's eat." Asuna told Kirito.

**One week later…**

"Good morning Kirito." Asuna yawned as she sat up in bed to see Kirito looking at some things in his menu.

"Good morning Asuna and I got some good news." Kirito said.

"Well spill it already." Asuna told him annoyed he did not tell her immediately.

"Klein arrived here in Horunka last night. He told us to meet him in the lobby in a half hour which was twenty minutes ago. So let's go meet our friend and his buddies." Kirito informed her.

"Ok I will get dressed so we can go." Asuna said. Lately if they are staying in Horunka Kirito and Asuna just wear normal clothes without their armor. In five minutes Asuna found an outfit she like which was an orange t-shirt with blue skinny jeans. Once again Kirito wore a black long sleeve shirt and black jeans.

"You ready to go?" Kirito asked Asuna for the fifth time that minute.

"Yes and you need to be more patient." Asuna told him walking to the door, Kirito hot on her heels.

"I am patient. We have been training and questing all week without gaining even one level." Kirito whined. They started down the steps and Kirito saw Klein. "Hey Klein, how's it going!"

"Hello Kirito, Asuna." Klein greeted glumly.

"Hey bro what's the matter. Is it girl troubles because they have been driving me crazy for the last week." Kirito joked, jabbing a thumb at Asuna.

"Hey! I am not a trouble!" Asuna complained.

"Well…" Kirito started.

"You finish that sentence and you will not live to see tomorrow." Asuna threatened.

"Flirting with the ladies I see Kirito." Klein joked then his face fell again.

"No I am not flirting, we are just friends." Asuna and Kirito said at the same time with red faces.

"Sure you aren't." Klein replied.

"So man, what is the matter." Kirito asked Klein.

"You know those friends of mine I told you about?" Klein asked.

"Yeah, did something happen to them?" Kirito asked.

"Yes and no. Some of them didn't log on and the one that did locked himself up in the Town of Beginnings. In other words I am lonely." Klein replied.

"Don't worry about it Klein you got us." Asuna told him.

"And me." A new voice interjected. Asuna and Kirito recognized the voice and turned to it. There towering before them was a bald black man with a goatee and with a very muscular body. It was Agil.

"Hey Agil." Kirito greeted.

"Hello Agil nice to see you again." Asuna told him.

"Kirito and Asuna, I see you two are doing better than you were a week ago." Agil commented.

"Yeah we have been training." Kirito told him.

"Ok guys we need to catch up on what happened over the last week. Let's get to a restaurant and exchange stories over some breakfast." Asuna suggested.

**One hour later…**

"Wait you guys killed a mini boss!" Klein exclaimed.

"Yep."

"And you are level five?" Klein asked.

"Yep."

"And you have the strongest weapons of your preference you can currently get?" Agil asked.

"Yep."

"Damn you guys are going to get somewhere in here." Klein told them. Kirito just finished telling them the story of what happened since they arrived at Horunka. Both he and Asuna were asked several questions by Klein and a few by Agil.

"So guys we were heading out for Tolbana in one hour and we would like you guys to come with us." Asuna told them.

"Got nothing better to do." Klein said.

"I would rather work in a group rather than solo. Let's go." Agil told them.

**Five hours later…**

**Place: Tolbana**

"Finally we can sit down." Klein sighed as they walked into their inn room. Klein walked to the closest bed as Kirito walked to the farthest. Agil plopped onto the couch closing his eyes to sleep leaving Asuna standing in the door.

"Where am I supposed to sleep?" Asuna asked a little scared at the thought of sleeping on the floor or with the pervert named Klein.

"On the floor with the cockroaches or with Kirito in that bed because he is the smallest." Agil told her without opening his eyes.

"What?" Kirito and Asuna asked at the same time.

"Oh please like you guys haven't slept in the same bed as someone of the opposite sex before." Klein told them from his bed.

"Yeah well we just met." Asuna countered.

"Yes, but you already look like best friends. The less you think about it, the less awkward it is." Agil put in.

"Fine whatever." Asuna grumbled and lay down next to Kirito.

"Ok everyone be up by three so we can make it to the meeting." Kirito told them and drifted off to sleep.

Kirito woke to the sound of laughing and two guys talking. "Oh my God this is some good blackmail right here." The voice of Klein said.

Still with his eyes closed Kirito then heard the voice of Agil say, "That really is. I just hope they don't kill us for laughing at them or Asuna kill Kirito for this."

"Kill me for what?" Kirito asked still not sitting up or opening his eyes.

"Oh Kirito you are awake." Klein said nervously.

"Kirito look at your shoulder." Agil told him. Kirito turned his head and saw something that made his face so red it made tomatoes look white. There was a clump of chestnut colored hair and the face of Asuna lying on his shoulder and her body cuddled up next to his. Kirito quickly moved off the bed and gently put Asuna's head on her pillow.

Kirito then turned to the other two and said, "You tell her anything you die." Both of them nodded so hard their heads nearly fell off.

**Two months later…**

**Place: Floor One Labyrinth**

"Asuna, switch!" Kirito called out.

"On it." Kirito knocked up the Ruin Kobold Trooper's mace and stepped out of the way for Asuna to stab it with her maxed out Wind Fleuret rapier. Kirito looked over at Klein and Agil's progress on their group of Ruin Kobold Troops just in time to see Agil smash their last one's face in with his axe.

"Ok guys we should all be level twelve by now. Let's go home." Kirito told them as they walked away from the boss room door. The four of them have been traveling through the Labyrinth every day for the past month and three weeks ago they found the door. Since then they made it their goal to reach the door every time they go through. While they were walking back to the farmer's house they were renting Kirito thought of the events that happened in the last two months. Over two thousand players died and they were still on the first floor. Kirito, Asuna, Agil, and Klein knew where the room was of course, but no one wants to come with them to raid the room. Another thing that happened is that it is possible they may be raiding the boss room soon. Today at four P.M forty players including Kirito, Asuna, Klein, and Agil will be attending to discuss how to kill the boss. The current time was three o'clock so they had plenty of time to get to the meeting.

An hour later the four of them were sitting in the seats of the amphitheater type place they were at waiting for the meeting to start. "Ok people take your seats because it is time to start." The blue haired man waited for everyone to sit down and quiet down. "Hi my name is Diavel and it is good to see you all. In this game I rolled the job as knight." When he said this everyone started laughing and saying things like 'There is no job system in this game.' When everyone quieted down again Diavel got serious. "Ok first off we need to find where the boss room is. Does anyone happen to know where it is?"

At this Kirito, Asuna, Klein, and Agil all raised their hands. "It is at the top of the tower or Labyrinth about a half hour walk away from here." Kirito told him.

"Thank you for telling us. Now onto the next part, the planning. I want everyone to team up into parties of six." Diavel told everyone. Immediately everyone grabbed their friends and forming parties.

"No one else is joining us." Asuna said in a way that made anyone consider asking to join think again.

"That is fine by me." Kirito said.

"Ok now that we got that covered I shall tell you what we know on the boss. His name_." Diavel was cut off by a man that Asuna and Kirito recognized by his voice. It was Kibaou. He had orange hair and goatee with a ruff looking face.

"Hold on a second!" Kibaou ran up into the middle of the amphitheater. "The name is Kibaou got that. I need to get something clear with all of you. You all know about the two thousand players that died. Well some of you need to apologize to them right now."

"I am guessing you are referring to the beta testers." Diavel guessed.

"Of course I mean them. When this started all of them just left. They got all of the easy quests, best items, and the best hunting spots. I say we make them give up everything they have to prove that they are trust worthy." Kibaou suggested. Kirito studied all of the players' faces and saw their emotions. Some like Kibaou's plan, some did not give a damn what happened, some hated it, and some looked terrified which were probably the beta testers.

"Hold on a second Kibaou!" Asuna yelled at him. She stood up and walked down the stairs until she was face to face with him. "I agree with you some beta testers might not be the best, but what makes them different from regular players. They all want to survive just like we do. So help players, and I know this because I have had several help me out. Some prefer to go solo and keep to themselves. Many players are like those so don't just blame beta testers. Also about a fourth of the deaths were by player committing suicide and some were from outside interference."

"That doesn't matter because they don't give us any information on this stupid death game." Kibaou countered, but everyone could tell he was losing this fight.

"Yes they did. The beta testers are the ones who wrote the guide book for SAO. You got one right?" Asuna asked.

"Yeah I got one, who didn't."

"There it is Kibaou. Who didn't get one? Almost everyone got one because they get handed out for free from the item store. Everyone had access to this information even so they still died. No one is to blame for what happened to them except for Akihiko Kayaba." Agil added in walking down next to Asuna. "Now sit down before I make you."

With a huge scowl on his face Kibaou walked over and sat down. Asuna and Agil then followed suit and walked back to their seats. "Now that this little dispute is over let's getting back to the reason we came here. The information on the boss is in the guide book you just heard about. His name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. He uses and axe and a buckler. When his health reaches his last of his health bars he switches to a curve type weapon called a talwar. Any questions?" Diavel told them. When no one raised their hand he finished, "Good, now I want to see you all here at ten thirty sharp tomorrow morning. Meeting dismissed."

**Back at the farmer's house…**

**Time: 1:00 A.M**

"Kirito?" Asuna checked to see if Kirito was awake.

Kirito woke up to Asuna saying his name. Ever sense they arrived in Tolbana and Klein and Agil started to travel with Kirito and Asuna, Kirito and Asuna have been sleeping in the same bed. They do not think it is weird because normal people do it all the time and it is not like they are doing anything bad. "Yeah Asuna what is it?" Kirito asked her then saw her face with tears rolling down her checks.

"What if something bad happens today? What if one of us dies? I don't want to die in here." Asuna sobbed out then buried her face in Kirito's chest. Kirito wrapped his arms around her to comfort her.

"Asuna nothing bad will happen to us. I promise you that none of us will die in this game. Most importantly I promise that I will protect you. You are one of my only friends and I would say probably my best friend and I promise that I will do everything I can to protect my friends." Kirito told her rubbing her back as she still sobbed into his chest.

Kirito didn't know how long they stayed like that, but eventually they fell asleep with Asuna lying on Kirito's chest. Kirito woke up to see Asuna once again lying on his chest with his arms wrapped around her. If anyone else saw them and didn't know what happened they would probably say they are boyfriend and girlfriend or husband and wife. "Asuna, Asuna wake up." Kirito whispered to her unwrapping his arms from around her.

"Huh, what, oh hey Kirito." Asuna said sitting up and yawning. "Sorry about last night." Asuna told him embarrassed thinking Kirito will tell someone or use that against her.

"Don't worry about it. I would do that for any of my friends even though I doubt the guys would start hugging me and using me as a giant tissue for tears." Kirito told her then added, "And I promise I won't tell anyone about what happened."

"Thank you Kirito. You are a great friend." Asuna told him.

"Aw, I am touched by that compliment Asuna." Kirito said.

"Guys do not do that ever." Asuna told him putting emphasis on never.

"I know I was messing around, now let's get the other guys and get to the boss raid." Kirito said to Asuna changing into his clothes and armor.

**Outside the boss room…**

"Alright everyone all I can tell you now is, let's beat this boss and show everyone that it is possible to beat this game." Diavel told them and opened the boss room door. Everyone cautiously walked into the room with their weapons ready to fight. As soon as everyone was in the room changed from a dark place into a bright room with color everywhere. All of the ceiling and walls had color blotches all over them without a single inch non colored. On the other side of the room was Illfang in his throne with about ten Ruin Kobold Sentinels surrounding him. "Charge!" Diavel ordered.

Everyone rushed forward to meet the enemy. Kirito, Asuna, Agil, and Klein were ordered to take on the Sentinels. Kirito and Asuna were teamed up for fighting like usual while Agil and Klein worked together. Kirito ran at the nearest Sentinel and used a **Vertical **Sword Skill to knock up the Sentinel's mace. "Asuna, switch!" Asuna charged in activating a **Linear **Sword Skill as Kirito jumped out of the way for Asuna to stab the Sentinel.

In the Sentinel's shock Kirito jumped at it from behind using a **Horizontal **Sword Skill to finish it off. Without hesitation the duo moved onto their next target. This time Asuna got the Sentinel's attention while Kirito snuck up behind it and took it out with a Sword Skill. They continued taking out the Sentinels along with some other players until Illfang reached his last health bar. Illfang threw away his axe and buckler and drew a new weapon. The problems were that is was a nodachi not a talwar and Diavel was trying to kill it by himself.

"Diavel get out of their! It won't work, that is not a talwar!" Kirito yelled to Diavel, but either he didn't hear Kirito's warning or he ignored it. Diavel activated a Sword Skill and was about to attack when Illfang attacked. He jumped up to the ceiling jumping around on the pillars then came down on Diavel with a heavy strike with Illfang's sword sending Diavel flying. Illfang lunged at Diavel again smashing him into the ground.

Kirito ran over to Diavel and pulled out a healing crystal. "You idiot what were you thinking." Diavel knocked away the healing crystal.

"You were one too, weren't you." Diavel said.

"You were a beta tester?" Kirito asked.

"Yes I was. You have to beat the boss. No one else can do it, do it for everyone here." Diavel told Kirito then exploded into nothing.

"Diavel, no!" Kibaou yelled. Kirito stood up and Asuna ran to his side.

"Let's kill this bastard." Asuna said to Kirito.

"Just like the Sentinels." Kirito said as they ran at Illfang. Kirito activated a Sword Skill and jumped at Illfang. Illfang then activated his own Sword Skill meeting Kirito halfway. Illfang's nodachi got knocked up enough so Asuna could jump in using a **Linear **Sword Skill to stab Illfang. The problem was that Illfang was stronger and quicker than the Sentinels so Asuna barely evaded his attack at her.

Kirito charged forward again to attack Illfang. The two began exchanging attacks with Asuna jumping in every here and there to stab Illfang. Kirito made his first mistake and got sliced across the stomach sending him flying into Asuna knocking them both down. Kirito's health dropped into the yellow. Both Kirito and Asuna raised their weapons to block Illfang's downward strike on them, but they didn't have to. Agil ran up activating a Sword Skill and parried Illfang's attack for them.

"Heal up and jump back in the fight. We can hold him off for now." Agil told him and charged Illfang along with the other players. Klein was the only one who stopped by them to help them up.

"You guys ok?" He asked.

"Yeah, Klein thanks for asking.: Kirito answered.

"Good to hear now let's kill this bastard." Klein told them. With those words the three of them charged. Illfang knocked up a few players and were about to take them out when Kirito jumped in. Kirito activated a Sword Skill and sent Illfang flying. Kirito landed and charged at him with Asuna, Agil, and Klein by his side.

"One last attack, let's do this!" Kirito yelled. Agil activated a Sword Skill and slammed his axe into Illfang's stomach. Klein also activated a Sword Skill slicing Illfang open. Asuna activated a new Sword Skill and rapid fire stabbed Illfang. Kirito came in for the final hit with an **Uppercut **Sword Skill cutting Illfang with a deep gash from his belly button to his left shoulder.

When Kirito landed from his attack Illfang exploded and 'Congratulations!' appeared above their heads. Instantly everyone started cheering. Everyone got a results screen telling them how much col and XP they got, but Kirito was the only one who got an item. A screen appeared in front of him saying, 'Congratulations you got the last attack bonus.' Then another screen came up telling him what he got. '**Coat of Midnight**.' Kirito closed the menus only to turn around and get punched in the face. Kirito backed up in surprise to see Kibaou standing there.

"I know who you are!" Kibaou yelled at him. "Only one group of people would know what the boss would do! You are a beta tester admit it. I bet you all of my col that there are more beta testers here!"

Kirito looked around and saw things were beginning to get conflicted. Kirito knew there was only one thing he could do to stop the conflict. He stood up and started laughing. "Me a beta tester. Ha. That is funny to put me in the same class as them. Most of the one thousand people who were beta testers sucked so mad they didn't even know who to level up. As for me and very few others we knew how to play. We were the ones who got somewhere in this game. During the beta I made it to higher floors than any of the other testers. The ones who went to those floors could not last. The reason why I knew how the boss fought was because I fought stronger monsters on a lot higher floors. I know more than any other beta tester or info broker."

"What the hell. You are worse than a beta tester you are a fucking cheater too." Kibaou spat.

"He's a beta and a cheater. He is a beater!" Someone yelled from the crowd.

"A beater. Huh that is a good one. Call me a beater then. Even though I still don't know how I am a cheater when I just know a lot about the game." Kirito said and he equipped the **Coat of Midnight**. "See you guys later." Kirito shouted and started walking towards the warp door.

Asuna ran up next to Kirito and said, "I am coming with you Kirito whether you like it or not."

"No you're not Asuna. I am going on my own from here on out." Kirito answered and dissolved the party.

"Yes I am. We don't need to be in a party I will follow you." Asuna argued. Kirito just shook his head and activated the warp door walking through with Asuna right behind him.

**Author's Note: Well guys that is it. I hope you all liked it and please review. One question I have for you guys is do you prefer few long chapters (10,000+) or a lot of short chapters (3,000 to 4,000). Also please review about quest ideas things that could happen or any other ideas you might have. Well actually there is one thing I will not accept and that is OCs. I may want them later on, but right now I do not need any. Just to let you guys know when I am done with this story I will make an Alfheim Online Alternate. It will be the sequel to this story so you can expect more from me even after this story is over. Another thing I have to mention is that some events that happen later on will happen earlier. (Spoilers alert! If you don't want any spoilers do not read the rest of the Author's Note!) Some examples are Kirito and Asuna getting married, Kirito getting his dual wielding skill, and meeting Lisbeth and Silica. That is it for now! I will see you all next time!**

**Follow, Favorite, and Review!**

**~ColtonTheCreeper**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Hello everyone and welcome to the next chapter of Sword Art Online Alternate. I would like to thank everyone reviewed and I agree with rolalini who reviewed saying I am to formal with the people talking. In this chapter I will try to improve that because I have noticed that. The reason I type like that is thanks to my teachers. If I would type something to casual I would have to redo it. Also this chapter will be a longer one, but it will not be as long as the last one. Some future chapters might be that long, but I do not like typing chapters over eight thousand words and that one was over ten thousand. I do not want to babble on anymore so here is the chapter.**

Chapter 3: Martial Arts

"Yes." Asuna said.

"I already said no." Kirito told her.

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Please Kirito. I want to come with you." Asuna begged.

"It is for the best if I go on my own. I am classified a beater and I doubt anyone would like them. If you start following me around, people will start getting the wrong idea about you." Kirito said to Asuna.

"I don't care what other people think about me. I can do what I want." Asuna shrugged.

"Asuna still_" Kirito tried again.

"They can call me a beater too. You are my only friend Kirito. I don't give a damn if people frown upon me for being friends with you." Asuna interrupted him. "Hold on we need to go to a store."

Kirito just sighed and followed Asuna through the streets of Urbus. Urbus is the main city on the Second Floor. It is located in a crater that is excavated from the mountain next to it. Surrounding the city are plains. "What do you need from a store? Don't you already have enough clothes?" Kirito asked.

"Probably." Was the only answer Kirito got from Asuna as they continued walking. For another ten minutes they looked for the nearest shop until finally they found the market distract of the city. Asuna turned around to face Kirito and told him, "Wait here." The way she said it Kirito knew there was no room for arguing.

Kirito walked over to the nearest bench and sat down. Not having anything else to do Kirito decided to check his stats and money. He had a little over thirteen thousand col and some items he could sell to get more. Kirito's One-Handed Sword skill level was at eighty one out of one thousand, his Detection skill was at level fifty six out of one thousand, and his hiding skill was at forty four out of one thousand plus the boost his **Coat of Midnight **gave him. Kirito's level was at level thirteen and so was Asuna's from what he remembered.

Kirito checked to see if Asuna was back yet and not seeing her Kirito took out his **Anneal Blade **to check its stats. It had five out of six up grades on it and had three quarters if its durability left. 'That is good, but I should upgrade and fix it soon.' Kirito thought to himself.

"Kirito." Asuna called out his name from behind him. Kirito turned around and saw Asuna yet he didn't recognize her. She was wearing all black like he was and even had on a coat that almost looked identical to the **Coat of Midnight**.

"Asuna? Why are you wearing my style of clothes?" Kirito asked.

"We are in the same party until the end of this got it." Asuna told him.

"Ok, but you still never answered my question." Kirito said.

"We are going to be traveling together for who knows how long. In my opinion we should have similar type of clothing." Asuna said.

"Well it looks good on you." Kirito said to her making her blush. "And one more thing. Where did you get that coat?"

"A player was selling it. It is called the **Coat of Darkness**. Similar to the **Coat of Midnight** with the hiding stat boost." Asuna told him.

"Awesome, now let's find an inn." Kirito said beginning to walk off.

Asuna ran up next to him. "We are finding an inn already. It is only a little bit after noon."

"So we don't have to worry about it later today." Kirito answered. The two of them started walking around the city looking for an inn. Just as they saw one they both heard a scream. "You got to be kidding me." Kirito muttered.

"Do you know who that is?" Asuna asked.

"It is Argo." Kirito answered.

"The info broker that we get information from and the one who wrote the guide book?" Asuna asked.

"That is the one. She is also known as Argo the Rat." Kirito added the last part because he thought the name was funny. "Let's go save her." With that they ran off in the direction of the scream until Kirito got a great idea.

"These buildings are in our way. It will take too long to get around." Asuna told him.

"Your right, but we can go over." Kirito said with a bit of excitement in his voice.

"What do you mean?" Asuna asked. Kirito did not answer but ran at the building in front of them. Using the game's mechanics to aid him Kirito jumped to his max height and used the wall to launch himself higher. Just barely was Kirito able to grab onto the roof of the building and pull himself up.

"Use your sprint skill to run up the wall!" Kirito yelled to Asuna and took off towards the sound of more screaming.

"You got to be kidding me Kirito." Asuna muttered and did as he said. Asuna caught up to Kirito and kept running until Argo was in sight. "What is going on?"

"Well it looks like the Ninja Guild from the beta is after Argo for some reason." Kirito told Asuna.

"A Ninja Guild. Seriously?" Asuna asked.

"Yes and they were a real pain in the ass if you were on their list." Kirito said.

"My guess is you were on their list before." Asuna said as they continued running after them jumping from a roof to the ground below.

"All the time. Main reason why I was on it was because I stole one of their kills." Kirito told her.

"Sounds just like you." Asuna commented.

"I don't know if I should classify that as a mean or nice comment." Kirito responded. "Stop!"

Both of them stopped immediately to see Argo finally got cornered. "Tell us where it is." One ninja commanded. For some reason Kirito thought the guys sounded like Darth Vader.

"No, you will have to force it out of me." Argo yelled back and drew her claw. The ninjas were about to attack when Kirito and Asuna jumped over the ninjas and in front of Argo. They both drew their weapons and got in a fighting stance.

"What the hell? Who the hell are you?" One of the five ninjas asked.

"No one you know. All I know and want to know that five Darth Vaders are trying to kill one of my friends." Kirito answered not lowering his sword an inch.

"We are ninja not Sith Lords." One of the ninjas responded.

"I know, but you do sound like Darth Vader." Kirito said.

"He has a point." One of the ninjas said.

"Don't converse with the enemy!" A ninja commanded.

"Sorry." The ninja replied sheepishly.

"Can't you see that those two are from an enemy guild. Look at their clothes." The now assumed leader told the others.

"Right so should we attack them? If we do we could take out some enemies and get the information we need." Another ninja suggested.

"Good idea. Ninja attack!" The leader yelled. The ninja charged at Kirito and Asuna drawing their swords. Two jumped at Asuna and three at Kirito. The ninja attacked in a furry. If they were to guess the ninja only upgraded their sprint/speed skills when they could.

After about a minute or so Kirito and Asuna started to get overrun by just blocking the ninja. Argo could help, but Kirito and Asuna told her not to because she is not as high of a level as those two were. Kirito tried to jump back from a swing but was grazed by a sword. Another tried to stab Kirito's head, but only cut his check when Kirito moved his head to the side. The third ninja that was attacking Kirito got behind him and stabbed him through the shoulder dropping Kirito's HP into the yellow zone. Asuna wasn't fairing much better. She received numerous cuts on the torso from the ninjas until Kirito made a decision. "Screw it Asuna! Fight back!"

Kirito jumped at the nearest Ninja who as now an orange player and activated a **Slant **Sword Skill. The ninja was too surprised to block the attack and got sliced across the chest. Much to Kirito's surprise and horror the attack was either more powerful or the ninja was weaker than he thought because the ninja exploded into particles. When Kirito did this he noticed Asuna make the same mistake as he did. She activated a **Linear **Sword Skill and drove through the ninja's stomach killing him. "What the?" Asuna asked out loud as the ninja's particles floated away.

"You bastard!" One of the ninja screamed at Kirito. He swung at Kirito with a **Horizontal **Sword Skill. Kirito ducked under the attack and knowing there was no other option activated an **Uppercut **Sword Skill and killed the attacker. The final attacker on Kirito dropped his sword and ran for his life. Kirito looked over at Asuna seeing her having trouble with the ninja leader.

"Die you bitch!" He yelled at her. He sliced her across the chest with a Sword Skill and was about to finish her off when Kirito jumped on his back stabbing his sword through his back. Kirito ripped his sword out of the ninja who just exploded.

Asuna collapsed on her knees and put her head in her hands with tears in her eyes. "I just killed someone." She stuttered out.

Kirito dropped to the ground and lay down. "Yeah me too."

"I'm sorry I made you guys do that for me." Argo told them. "You didn't have to."

"No it's alright." Asuna responded.

"Yeah they would probably attack us if they saw us anyway." Kirito added.

"Still this is my fault." Argo said.

"No it isn't. No matter what happened not all of us were going to walk away." Kirito told her then asked, "What were they after anyway?"

"They wanted to know where this Martial Arts extra skill quest was. I refused to tell them so they chased me." Argo answered.

"You were in a Safe Zone, why didn't you stay there?" Asuna asked.

"I forgot about that in my panic." Argo told them embarrassed rubbing the back of her neck.

"So Argo, where is the quest?" Kirito asked wanting the extra skill.

"At the top of the mountain over there." Argo replied and pointed at where it is supposed to be.

"Let's go Asuna." Kirito said to Asuna standing up. Asuna followed his example as the two of them walked off in the direction Argo told them.

Argo ran off after them shouting, "Wait! I can take you there!"

Kirito and Asuna turned around as she caught up. "No Argo. We don't want to cause you more trouble so we are going on our own." Asuna told her.

"But_." Argo tried again.

"Argo the answer is no. We prefer to just work with each other. I will give you the info on the quest when we are done. Now Asuna let's go." Kirito told Argo firmly.

Argo just watched the two black dressed figures walk off in the distance. "Wasn't that a little harsh?" Asuna asked Kirito.

"Yeah. I am just a little mad at her that is all." Kirito responded.

"Why, did she do something?" Asuna questioned.

"What I am mad at her for is not her fault. During the boss fight when Illfang pulled out the nodachi it wasn't the right weapon. In Argo's guide book it said Illfang uses a talwar. Usually that wouldn't make much of a difference, but the fighting styles were different. Deep down I believe that if Argo's information was correct Diavel would still be alive." Kirito said.

"I know what you mean. That wasn't anyone's fault except Akihiko Kayaba's." Asuna said to Kirito as they stopped walking.

"We should head back to Urbus, sleep, and start the quest in the morning." Kirito told Asuna.

"Good idea. Plus then we can have a celebration dinner for beating the First Floor." Asuna suggested.

"I can't wait." Kirito told her as they started walking back towards Urbus.

"Good because I am cooking it." Asuna said proudly.

"Yes!" Kirito cheered. Kirito has been in love with Asuna's cooking ever sense he tasted it a month ago. Every chance he gets Kirito begs Asuna to make him some food. Her food is so good that some things that Kirito didn't like in the real world he loves now.

**Two hours later…**

**Place: Urbus**

"Ah, that was a good meal." Kirito sighed in delight. He and Asuna just finished eating a stew Asuna cooked up in their room they were renting. The two of them found the best room they could find which had a kitchen so Asuna could cook. At first when Kirito was told it cost five hundred col a night, but after eating Asuna's food he no longer cared.

"Yeah, but I have made better." Asuna confessed.

"I don't care, that was still one of the best meals I ever had." Kirito told her.

"Flattering gets you everywhere except somewhere with me." Asuna said to Kirito.

"Well it's the truth." Kirito said.

"I doubt it." Asuna replied.

"How would you know?" Kirito asked.

"I don't but_" Asuna tried, but was cut off by Kirito.

"Exactly you don't know, so don't argue." He interrupted.

"Whatever." Asuna sighed and shook her head at Kirito.

"How long do you think it will take to clear this floor?" Kirito asked changing the subject.

"I don't know, but it will take a lot less time. My guess is two weeks tops." Asuna said.

"That makes sense." Kirito said. "Also probably more players will join the clearing team."

"Probably two or if we are lucky three times more players than the First Floor." Asuna told Kirito.

"I hope we are lucky then. I also hope a lot of players see that this game is beatable and stop staying in the Town of Beginnings." Kirito said standing up from his chair.

"They probably already have." Asuna said also standing up.

"How do you know?" Kirito asked as he walked over to one of the beds.

"I noticed that about two thousand players came to the Second Floor today and more are still coming." Asuna told him as she sat down next to him on the bed.

"Well that is good news." Kirito said.

"Yeah, well we should go to sleep. It's getting late." Asuna said checking the time to see it was about ten o'clock.

"Good idea." Kirito said as he pulled back the blankets on the bed and laid down in it. Asuna climbed into the bed next to him and pulled the blankets over her. "Don't you want to sleep in your own bed?"

"No it is more comfortable and I have gotten used to it so don't question it." Asuna told him blushing.

"Um, ok. Good night." Kirito said also blushing.

"Good night Kirito." Asuna said as the two of them drifted off into sleep.

**Morning…**

"Wake up Kirito!" Asuna yelled for the tenth time. Asuna was fully equipped and ready to go, but Kirito was still in the bed with a pillow around his head to drown out Asuna's yelling.

"Five more minutes." Kirito whined.

"You said that fifteen minutes ago!" Asuna yelled.

"Five minutes of peace and quiet." Kirito begged from the bed.

"Alright, but I am not cooking you anything for a week." Asuna said evilly. As soon as she finished saying that Kirito was up and equipping his gear. Within one minute Kirito was fully equipped and running to the door.

"Come on Asuna, what is taking you so long?" Kirito asked.

"I was waiting for you!" Asuna yelled at him as she ran after him. Kirito ran down the stairs and out of the inn with Asuna on his heels yelling at him. After twenty minutes of running and yelling Kirito and Asuna finally stopped half way to the mountain.

"That was fun." Kirito laughed.

"I'm going to kill you." Asuna growled at him.

"Yeah right." Kirito said, but had Asuna's rapier pointed at his throat before he could say more. "Sorry." He squeaked.

"Kirito your voice was just so high you make it sound like I have a deep voice." Asuna told him falling over laughing as Kirito just pouted.

"I am a teenage boy, our voices crack from time to time." Kirito tried to justify what just happened to him, but was failing miserably.

"No that was definitely fear and maybe a voice crack." Asuna said still laughing.

"Oh whatever, let's just get to the top of this mountain." Kirito sighed as he started to walk off again with a laughing Asuna at his side.

**Halfway up the mountain…**

"How high is this thing?" Asuna panted as the two of them climbed up the side of the mountain.

"I have no clue." Kirito admitted as he almost lost his grip on one of the rocks he was holding onto.

"Great." Asuna sighed as they continued climbing.

"I know right. I would have loved to do this if this was not a death game." Kirito told her as he pulled himself up onto a ledge.

"Agreed." Asuna said as she pulled herself onto the ledge next to Kirito.

"I am so happy we didn't fall." Kirito said to Asuna as they looked down the cliff. What they so was clouds, what they didn't see was ground.

"This mountain looked so much smaller from the ground." Asuna said.

"Yeah, if this wasn't a death game I would probably have tried sky diving off here." Kirito admitted.

"What do you mean sky diving?" Asuna asked curiously, " As far as I know there are no parachutes in SAO."

"You are right, but before you hit the ground you use a teleport crystal to warp you to a city unharmed." Kirito explained.

"That sounds like fun." Asuna told him.

"It is until you mess up." Kirito told Asuna then added, "If you think getting killed by a monster is scary, falling to your death is even worse."

"How did you fall to your death?" Asuna asked trying not to laugh at the thought.

"I was sky diving and forgot I ran out of teleport crystals." Kirito said.

"You are a dumbass you know that." Asuna said to Kirito.

"Thanks for the compliment. No let's get climbing again so we can reach the martial arts quest giver by lunch." Kirito suggested. Asuna nodded and the two began to ascend up the mountain once again.

**One hour later…**

"Come on Asuna we are almost there." Kirito called out to Asuna below him.

"Thank God, my arms are hurting like hell." Asuna yelled back. Asuna looked around a bit as she was climbing and noticed something. "Kirito look to your right!"

Kirito looked over in that direction and saw another player climbing the cliff above them and was almost to the top. "Finally I made it!" Kirito heard the player exclaim. The player reached for another hand hold when things turned south. The handhold was not strong enough to hold the players weight so when he reached for another handhold the rock gave way. The player fell backwards down the cliff. He hit a ledge with the lower half of his body and Kirito and Asuna heard a cracking noise. He fell backwards again from there, but he was already glowing. Within a second the player exploded into particles leaving no trace of the player.

"No." Kirito heard Asuna whisper.

"Test the handhold before you put your weight on it or that will happen." Kirito warned and continued climbing.

**Two hours later…**

**Place: Martial Arts Master's Hut**

"We finally made it." Kirito panted as they reached the door of the hut after running from a pack of monsters.

"I hope this will be worth it." Asuna said leaning over and clutching her stomach as they continued to pant from exhaustion.

"Well who do we have here." They heard a new voice say. Just then did the two of them notice that someone opened the door in front of them. Before them was an old man without hair and a gray goatee. He had on a large circle hat you see a lot of sensei people wear in movies. Also in his right hand he had a bamboo walking staff.

"Um hello sir. My name is Kirito and this is my friend Asuna." Kirito introduced them to the man.

"Nice to meet you both. Would you like to come in?" He invited them. He turned walking back into his hut with Kirito and Asuna behind him. "It has been lonely a lot up here." The man started as he sat down and offered Kirito and Asuna a seat. "I am growing old in age. I have learned much in this life of mine, but I need an apprentice or apprentices to carry on my skills. I see that both of you look like skilled fighters, but I would like to offer you the position as my apprentices."

"We are honored to have that privilege and we accept. What must we do?" Kirito asked him.

"You see I have some boulders in front of my hut that I wish for you to destroy. The catch is you must use your bear hands. Now step forward so I can mark you as my students." He instructed them. Kirito and Asuna both got up and stepped in front of him. The man took out something and drew something on both of their faces. Once the man stepped back Asuna and Kirito turned to face each other.

"You have whiskers on your face!" They both exclaimed at the same time.

"Indeed you do. These will not fade until you break the boulders." He told them.

"We will do this right away sir." Asuna said to the old man.

"I am no longer a sir to you, but Sensei." He told them. Both of the players nodded and walked outside.

Asuna looked around for the boulders until she saw them and said, "You have got to be fucking kidding me!"

Kirito looked over at the boulders and wore the same expression of shock. "That is impossible to break with our bare hands. What the hell is that Sensei guy thinking?!" Kirito yelled.

"I don't know. Maybe there is some sort of weak point we have to hit?" Asuna suggested.

"Probably or we have to figure out how to use the Martial Arts Skill to break the boulders." Kirito said.

"Yeah that makes the most sense. Any idea how we use it?" Asuna asked.

"None." Kirito walked forward towards a boulder. Just to check Kirito punched the rock hard, but not with full strength. Kirito yelped in pain and looked at his knuckles to see them glowing red meaning he was injured during the attempt. "Damn. Regular punching is out."

"Then what do we do, kick it?" Asuna wondered. Kirito shook his head.

"We may have to just punch the air a bit and get a feel for hand to hand combat in this death game. Otherwise I am out of ideas." Kirito told Asuna.

"How about we eat lunch first." Asuna suggested. Kirito nodded and sat down. Asuna tossed him his sandwich which she made for him in the morning.

"This is so good." Kirito told Asuna as he was eating the sandwich.

"Thank you Kirito." Asuna thanked him.

When they were done the two of them stood up. "Ok so let's try this out." Kirito told Asuna. For the next hour the two of them punched around in the air trying to figure it out, but were stumped.

"Let's take a break." Asuna sighed as she sat down in front of one of the boulders. Kirito walked over and sat down across from he with his back resting against another boulder.

"I am so exhausted from today." Kirito said.

"Agreed." Asuna agreed with Kirito as she closed her eyes for a minute.

Kirito did the same until he asked, "Do the whiskers look good on me?"

Asuna looked up at him and studied his whiskered face. "If you want every person that sees you die from laughter then yes they do." Asuna confessed then asked, "How about me?"

Kirito thought of a good comeback and said, "Normally you look great, but with those whiskers." Kirito shook his head and said, "All of those looks in the positives numbers got turned into negative numbers."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Asuna asked with anger in her voice.

"You look dumber than we did when we were punching air." Kirito told her.

"No about the positive and negative numbers things?" Asuna asked.

"I was saying you look pretty bad." Kirito answered.

Asuna smirked and said, "So when I don't have the whiskers you think I look pretty."

Kirito widened his eyes and blushed realizing what he just said. "Yeah, I guess." He said timidly.

"What is I guess supposed to mean?!" Asuna yelled.

"Yes! A definite yes! Don't kill me, please!" Kirito coward in fear.

"Thank you for the compliment." Asuna thanked him and stood up. "We should sleep it is getting late."

"Yeah." Kirito agreed standing up still ready to bolt. "Get your sleeping bag out."

When Kirito told Asuna that she froze. "S-sleeping bag?" She asked.

"Yeah." Kirito told her then he saw her face, "You have one, right?" Asuna shook her head no. "I told you to get one a few weeks ago!"

"I thought we could always go to an inn instead!" She yelled back.

"I told you we would probably have to sleep in the wilderness some nights! Did you think I was kidding?!" Kirito asked.

"Well no, but I thought it was pointless at the time!" Asuna argued.

"Now is the worst time because it would take too long to go to Urbus and come back." Kirito said to Asuna. "We now have three options: Share mine, I use mine and you sleep without one, or you use mine and I sleep without one. Actually I take the last one back."

"Well I have a pillow and warm coat so I should be good without one." Asuna told Kirito and summoned the pillow.

"Ok. Good night Asuna." Kirito responded and fell asleep.

"Good night Kirito." Asuna replied falling asleep as well.

**Two days later…**

**Time: Morning**

**Place: Martial Arts Hut**

Asuna awoke to the sound of banging and cursing. She sat up and looked over to see Kirito punching boulders again. "What are you doing Kirito?" Asuna asked.

"Trying to break the damn boulders." Kirito told Asuna.

"And you could wake me up?" Asuna asked him crossing her arms.

"No, you looked to peaceful to be awoken." Kirito replied.

"My guess is you are not having any luck breaking them." Asuna guessed gesturing to the boulders around them.

"Yeah, you're right like usual. The old man_" Kirito started say something, but was cut off by Sensei.

"You are supposed to call me Sensei not old man, young man!" Sensei shouted at Kirito.

"Sorry!" Kirito yelled back then said, "As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted by Sensei. He told me before you woke up that we already know how to use the Martial Arts Skill."

"How do we know how to use it before we were taught it?" Asuna thought out loud.

"I know it makes no sense to me." Kirito told her.

"If you had half a brain you would have figured it out by now!" Sensei shouted at them.

"Shut up!" Kirito and Asuna shouted at him in union.

"It is a skill! Think of skills!" He shouted at them. Sensei just shook his head after that and returned inside of his hut to do whatever NPCs do.

"Think of skills. Think of skills." Asuna was saying out loud. She stopped and looked at Kirito's face to see him deep in thought. "What are you thinking?"

"I got it!" Kirito suddenly exclaimed.

"What is it already?!" Asuna yelled back at him.

"A skill!" He yelled standing up.

"No shit Sherlock." Asuna said to him.

"No not that kind of skill. A Sword Skill!" He told her with excitement in his voice. Asuna made an 'o' with her mouth and Kirito continued. "We have been trying to just punch it, but we have never given it time for a Sword Skill to activate." He explained.

"So that means if I do that I will be able to break a boulder. Yeah right." Asuna grumbled and walked over to a boulder. She brought back her fist and a Sword Skill called **Embracer **smashing the rock to pieces.

"Ha you were wrong Asuna!" Kirito exclaimed.

"Don't rub it in asshole." Asuna growled. Kirito just flashed a smile at her and used **Embracer **to smash a few boulders.

"Congratulations!" Sensei told them as he walked out of his hut. "I guess you two actually do have brains. The rest of the Martial Arts skills you will figure out eventually just like you did with **Embracer**. Good luck to both of you." When he finished speaking he walked away to his hut.

'Congratulations you finished the Martial Arts Extra Skill quest!' this message appeared in front of both Kirito and Asuna. The message closed and showed the amount of col and XP they got.

"Yay I reached level fourteen." Kirito said.

Asuna looked over at him and said, "Me too."

"Well Asuna time to head back to Urbus." Kirito told her and pulled out a teleport crystal and started walking towards the edge of the cliff.

"What are you doing?" Asuna asked Kirito.

"Sky diving. You want to try it or I will meet you in Urbus." Kirito answered.

Asuna was shocked he would even suggest that, but what she was thinking was, 'Let's do this! You only live once after all!' Asuna shrugged and walked up next to Kirito. "Oh what the hell." She said out loud.

"Remember that we die if we mess up. I will tell you when to teleport to Urbus or do it if you are in trouble or don't want to continue." Kirito instructed her.

"Got it." She responded.

"Ready?" Kirito asked.

"Ready." Asuna answered firmly.

"Three…two…ONE!" Kirito counted down and the two of them jumped.

**Real World…**

Over the time that the players have been trapped in Sword Art Online there has been a few technological advancements. Asuna's father and his company RECTO Inc. have come up with a device that allows people to see what is going on inside of Sword Art Online. At this time in two different places two different families were watching Kirito and Asuna. The two families were the Kirigaya family and the Yuuki family. When they saw that the two of them were about to jump both families yelled, "NO!" Their yells were useless when the two of them jumped. What surprised the on lookers was that they were laughing and smiling. Another thing they noticed is that they were falling like sky divers did with their bodies spread out. After a few minutes of falling Kirito told something to Asuna and they both pulled out their teleportation crystals. Both of them used the crystals and the setting changed to the teleport gate in Urbus.

**Back in Aincrad…**

"That. Was. Awesome!" Asuna yelled.

"Way more fun than when I remember doing that." Kirito told Asuna.

"Ok time to get to an inn. We will head for the Front Lines in the morning." Asuna said to Kirito.

"Yeah, I can't wait to sleep in an actual bed again." Kirito told Asuna.

"That reminds me." Asuna said and ran off. Kirito was about to follow, but Asuna signaled for Kirito to wait there. Kirito went over to a bench and sat down. He waited for a few minutes until Asuna called out for him again. Kirito turned around half expecting Asuna to come back with more black clothes like she did last time which Kirito is still not complaining about.

"What did you just do?" Kirito asked.

"Bought a sleeping bag of course, some food, and something else." Asuna replied.

"What is the something else?" Kirito asked.

"I'll show you later." Asuna said to Kirito.

"I know you want to show me now." Kirito said.

"No I don't."

"Yes you do."

"NO!" Asuna yelled drawing a lot of looks from nearby players.

"YES!" Kirito yelled back equally loud.

"Fine, I'll show you when we get a room." Asuna said.

"Good." Was all Kirito said in reply.

**In their room…**

"So what did you get?" Kirito asked like he was a little boy on Christmas morning.

"Do you really want to know?" Asuna asked.

"YES!" Kirito yelled.

"Alright then." Asuna replied. She opened up her menu and searched around for a bit until she found what she was looking for. She unequipped her rapier and equipped something else. Slung on her back in a similar fashion to Kirito was a One-handed straight sword. She drew the weapon revealing the black blade of the weapon and said, "Can you teach me how to fight with a sword?"

**Author's Note: Well that is this chapter. I would have posted this sooner but I got the grand idea of posting this on the day Sword Art Online 2 is premiering in the United States. I have watched the first episode which in my opinion could put me to sleep half way through, but it is still awesome. I will try to have a chapter up every Saturday or Sunday from now on. P.S Asuna will not be a sword fighter. She will fight with a sword from time to time. I am doing this instead of her using a spear sometimes like she does in the original. Also there is a reason behind the black clothing which will be explained later on. That is it for this Author's Note!**

**Follow, Favorite, and Review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Hello everyone and welcome again to Sword Art Online Alternate. Everyone who reviewed this story I would like to thank because when I posted the last chapter I received ten reviews in two days which is quite a bit. I noticed in the reviews you guys were questioning a few things I did and said you liked a few things. I will try to add more scenes of the things you like and explain the things you questioned such as Asuna's dark clothes and sword. This will also be the last chapter on the Second Floor before moving onto the third. Also in the first chapter I said there will be over two hundred chapters I changed my mind. There will be over one hundred chapters for sure, but some floors I don't have enough information on or are that interesting to do two chapters on. I believe I have said enough for now.**

Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online even though I wish I do.

Chapter 4: Too Many Bulls

**Floor: Two**

**City: Urbus**

**Place: Kirito and Asuna's inn room**

"Will you teach me how to fight with a sword?" Asuna asked again. Kirito was shocked by this and looked at the sword. Much to his surprise it was black like everything she has except her rapier.

"Sure, but I have one question." Kirito answered.

"Fair enough, what is it?" Asuna asked.

"What is with all of the dark colors?" Kirito questioned.

"We are going to work together so I thought we should have somewhat of a uniform." She replied.

Kirito studied her face when she answered and notice a few things to indicate a lie. He voice quivered a bit, she would not make eye contact, and he knew her facial expressions after traveling together for all this time. "That is a lie." Kirito stated. "What is the real reason?"

"I like the color?" She tried, but Kirito heard it sounded like a question.

"Not true. You used to always say that black is to dark and it is meant for death." Kirito told her.

"Do you really want to know?" Asuna asked with sadness in her voice.

"If you ever have any problems tell me so please just tell me." Kirito said in a soft voice.

"It is the color of death." Was all Asuna said to Kirito.

"I don't understand." Kirito told her confused.

"We are stuck in a death game with only one way out. Over two thousand people have died and it won't be long before death comes for us at this rate." Asuna began crying as she was talking. "We are going to die in here Kirito. I have been looking for an opportunity an excuse to wear black because that is what you wear to a funeral. In here I feel like I am attending my own funeral and everyone else's who is stuck in Aincrad. I don't want to die in here. I want to grow old. I want to have a family, get married, and have children. And now sense we are stuck in here none of that can happen once we die." Asuna told him sobbing. She hugged him and sobbed into his chest.

"Asuna you are not going to die." Kirito assured her. "I am not going to die. We are going to clear this game together got it." Kirito started to rub her back soothingly as she continued to cry.

A minute later Asuna chocked out, "How do you know we are not going to die?"

"You are not going to die because I will protect you and I will not die because I will need to live to protect you. Asuna do not think of this as a place where we will die think of this as a place where we will live. Treat this as if this is the real world, so be yourself because right now this is our reality." Kirito told her. "Can you do that… for me?"

"Yes I will, and Kirito." Asuna began. "Thank you for saying that to me, and you are right. Even if we will die we should go down being ourselves and not pretending to be something we are not." Asuna opened her menu and began to change her clothes. Instead of being all black it was white with some red. Her black coat was replaced by a white one that was exactly the same except it gave a speed bonus. Her black shirt was replaced by a red one, but her black jeans remained. "I was serious about you teaching me how to use a sword, but that can wait until tomorrow."

"Yeah it can and that looks better on you than all of that black. That is my color." Kirito said to Asuna. "Do you even want to sleep right now?"

"No, do you?" Asuna asked Kirito.

"No." Kirito said and the two met each other's eyes and said, "Training time."

**An hour later…**

"Like this Asuna." Kirito showed Asuna again how to hold and swing the sword properly. She tried to copy how he had it, but was a little bit off. "Hold you sword with one hand when you swing. Use your other hand along with your body to add more momentum by moving it with the sword." Once again Asuna tried it and got it almost perfectly. "Great job Asuna, but you need to loosen your grip on your sword a bit. If you do so you lose the risk of hurting your hand when swinging the sword. If you want to have tight grips move your hand down a few centimeters." Kirito instructed.

"Like this?" Asuna asked and swung her sword.

"Perfect. Now it is time for some Sword Skills." Kirito told her receiving a nod in response. "Ok the most basic and easiest Sword Skills are **Horizontal**, **Vertical**, **Slant**, and **Uppercut**. For a **Horizontal **raise your sword like you are about to swing it across your chest. Hold it in that position for a moment and it should activate if you use it correctly."

For the next few hours they trained like this and had a competition to see who could kill the most monsters which Kirito won and took lead in the levels. He was now level fifteen and Asuna close behind him with not that much XP left before she reaches fifteen.

**Four days later…**

"Swing the sword, don't just stab." Kirito told Asuna as they killed another bull.

"Ok, it is just that I am so used to stabbing a lot." Asuna said.

"It is alright. You are doing a lot better than yesterday." Kirito told her and then said, "What is with all of these bulls?"

"I don't know. How much do you want to bet the boss will be a bull?" Asuna asked as she sheathed her sword and they started walking.

"Nothing because I know the boss is a bull. I was a beta tester remember." Kirito answered.

"That is not fair you know all of that." Asuna pouted.

"Yes it is." Kirito responded.

"Ok then, explain it to me." Asuna demanded.

"Well it is like winning the lottery. That is what becoming a beta tester was like. Some people think it isn't fair they got all of that money for free, but others know that it is just luck. Therefore what I won was some knowledge on the lower floors." Kirito explained.

"Never thought of it that way." Asuna said.

"I just made that up on the spot, but it is true." Kirito told her.

"You always make stuff up." Asuna said to him.

"Can't argue with that." Kirito said. They continued walking towards the Second Floor labyrinth. Out of nowhere Kirito said, "If I won the lottery that means all of the people that hate beta tester are like the people who try to rob the lottery winners."

"Or kill." Asuna said.

"Don't remind me of that part." Kirito mumbled.

"Oh please. Only Kibaou tried to kill us for the **Anneal Blade **and because you were a beta tester." Asuna told Kirito.

"Yeah and Kibaou will probably try again, but next time he will hire some red or orange players to do it for him." Kirito said.

"I agree. Only Kibaou and very few others would actually be so cowardly to hire someone else to do their dirty work." Asuna agreed. They kept walking for a bit until they saw light up ahead of them. "What's that?"

"I don't know, but from what I can see there are two heavily armed players in front of some cave entrance." Kirito replied.

"Yeah, but why would there be guards outside of a cave?" Asuna wondered.

"No clue." Kirito said. They continued walking towards the cave now hearing talking coming from inside.

"We will need at least ten shield users in front while others flank it from the sides." One voice said.

"No that won't work the bull will just turn to the attackers." Another voice said.

"How about we just surround it with shield users and have others attack from a distance." A voice that sounded kind of like Agil suggested.

"It sounds like they are planning for a boss fight." Asuna whispered to Kirito.

"They probably are." Kirito said then added, "My feelings are hurt because we weren't invited." They walked up in front of the two guards and were about to enter when they crossed their swords in front of them.

"You cannot enter. This is a private meeting. Leave at once." The guard on their right said.

"We have every right to be here." Kirito hissed at them.

The guard on the left stepped forward. "Leave at once kids before you get hurt." He warned.

"You think I'm scared of you?" Kirito asked him.

"You should be." The guard growled.

Kirito looked passed the two guards and saw two people in the cave that he knew could help them get in. Kirito elbowed Asuna and gestured with his head in Klein and Agil's direction as if to say, 'Get their attention.' Asuna nodded in understanding.

"Hey Klein, Agil!" Asuna shouted at them. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing instantly and looked in their direction.

"Yo, Kirito, Asuna!" Klein yelled and ran to the entrance with Agil behind him.

"Let them in." Agil told the guards. At first they were about to say no, but vetoed the idea when Agil glared at them.

"Hey Klein." Kirito said bumping fist with him and then Agil, "Hey Agil."

"Your late for the party guys!" Klein told them excitedly. Asuna and Kirito followed Klein and Agil into the area of the cave where the meeting was being held.

"What the hell is he doing here?" One of the clearers growled.

"We do not work with beater scum." Another one added. Kirito shook his head in frustration. Since the first boss battle almost everyone in all of Sword Art Online knows what and who is a beater. Thankfully most people don't know what Kirito looks like, so they were ok. Around clearers was another story. Every single clearer knows his face and would probably love to throw darts at it.

"He beat the first boss for us did he not?" Agil asked them.

"Well yeah, but_" A clearer tried to say something, but was cut off by Klein.

"Also from the time I worked with Kirito I know he is probably a higher level than everyone here." Klein told them.

"I doubt it because I am level thirteen." Kibaou said stepping up in front of them. "And I know for a fact that you two are as well." Kibaou gestured to Klein and Agil.

"Well then." Kirito began stepped forward in front of Agil and Klein and face to face with Kibaou. "I guess I am the strongest one here."

"You can't be higher than level twelve." Kibaou smirked thinking he was right and that Kirito and Asuna were bluffing about their levels. "You actually need to be good to get past that."

"Not true Kibaou. You see Asuna and I have been training a lot lately and I am level sixteen and she is level fifteen." Kirito told him.

"You are lying." Kibaou accused them.

"No we're not." Asuna said to him.

"Prove it then." Kibaou growled.

"We can do just that." Asuna assured him as she and Kirito opened their menus. Everyone in the cave was silent with so much tension in the air you could cut it like butter.

"Does this prove anything?" Kirito asked and displayed his stats for everyone to see. Asuna did the same as him, but a few seconds later.

"Impossible!" Kibaou shouted. "No one can have a sword level of two hundred yet!"

"Wow his detection skill is at level one hundred thirty eight." One guy said.

"He has the battle healing skill." A player gasped.

"His hiding skill is at level one hundred eleven plus the boost the **Coat of Midnight **gives him." Another player announced.

"Done being amazed yet?" Kirito asked annoyed.

"Wow look at Asuna's cooking skill. It is at level two hundred twenty five!" A female player said.

"Her rapier skill is at level one hundred eight seven!" Some rapier user said with jealousy in his voice.

"Her sprint skill is at level one hundred ninety four!" A guy said.

"Believe us now?" Kirito asked as he and Asuna closed their menus.

They received a lot of 'yes's and 'yeah's in response. "So do you want our help or not?" Asuna asked with anger in her voice. She was obviously upset that someone would care so much about ruining another player's life in a death game rather than clearing it.

Most players remained silent with their heads looking anywhere, but at Kirito and Asuna. The players that did say something all said, "Yes." The only player who said, "No." was of course Kibaou.

"So how do you want to go about making me leave? You want to have a duel?" Kirito asked. He knew he has already won no matter what happens. If Kibaou declines he will look weak and lose all influence he has on the clearers. If he accepts there is a very good chance he will lose the duel.

Kibaou stood there for a moment with a look of anger on his face. Kirito presumed he figured out what was going to happen and did not like it at all. "Fine let's have a duel."

"Wonderful. I was hoping you would say that." Kirito said excitedly. He navigated through his menu and sent Kibaou a duel request which he accept as a first hit. 'Smart move.' Kirito thought, 'If he messes this up it will look like he made a mistake and only lose part of his influence.'

The clock began to count down as Kirito and Kibaou drew their weapons. All of the onlookers knew the most likely outcome as well. Everything was stacked against Kibaou. Kirito was a higher level, more stats, higher level stats, a better weapon, and over all a better fighter.

Finally after a minute of waiting the duel began. Kibaou charged Kirito with a heavy downward **Vertical **Sword Skill. Kirito stepped to the side and swung at Kirito with a **Horizontal **Sword Skill which Kibaou barely had enough time to block. Once again Kibaou charged in attacking Kirito as fast as he could as he circled him. Only fueling Kibaou's rage Kirito only blocked all of his attack and did not fight back. Everyone knew if Kirito were to fight back this duel would not have lasted even half this long.

Everyone was confused as to why Kirito was fighting like this except for Asuna. Kirito had told Asuna when she began using a sword how to level up the sword skill faster. It was to make duels take longer and to stay on defense until the time is right. When that happens, attack and the game register it as a perfect hit which gives more XP. Also Asuna knew what he was planning to do. With every strike Kibaou's weapon grew weaker and weaker. If at the right time Kirito uses the **Sonic Leap **Sword Skill he could break Kibaou's weapon making him look downright pathetic.

Finally Kibaou used a **Slant **Sword Skill which Kirito parried easily. Leaving Kibaou wide open for a second Kirito kicked him in the chest and sent him flying backwards. Giving Kibaou one second to grab his sword which he dropped when he hit the ground Kirito ran forward and activated the **Sonic Leap **Sword skill. Aiming for just above the hilt on Kibaou's sword with the Sword Skill, Kirito snapped Kibaou's weapon in half leaving him shocked and defenseless.

Kibaou seeing he was defeated began to walk backwards raising his arms in surrender as Kirito advanced on him. "Just end this already. I look like a fool now any way." Kibaou begged. Kirito just smiled and activated the **Uppercut** Sword Skill and cut Kibaou form his balls all the way to his fore head dealing a lot of damage without killing him.

The 'Winner!' sign appeared next to Kirito's picture and name on the dueling screen above their heads. Kibaou was lying on his back with his HP in the low yellow zone with a shattered ego everywhere. "Any more objections to us helping?" Kirito asked smugly with his sword still in his hand. No one spoke a word still in a state of shock. Kirito just nodded his head in approval and sheathed his sword. "So what are we talking about?" Kirito asked as he walked to the table in the center of the cave.

"Um… we were talking about how we are going to beat the field boss that is blocking our path to Taran Village which is the closest place to the labyrinth." A player told Kirito.

"Ok, so what is the boss like?" Asuna asked stepping up next to Kirito.

"From what the group of players who got attacked by it told us it has a simple rush, turn, rush, turn pattern. It is about four meters tall, four horns, and blackish brown skin." Klein said to them.

"How about we get some swift players." Kirito suggested. "We can have those players dodge when it rushes after they agitate the boss. While they are doing that, switch every once in a while to rest so they are never too tired to jump, we have other players attack it from the side."

"That would be a good plan, but who is crazy enough to be a raging bull boss's main target?" Agil asked.

Asuna and Kirito exchanged glances and said, "We are."

"Of course you are." Agil muttered.

"But with their stats they would be very helpful attacking the boss." A player said.

"When we jump out of the way we can attack its vulnerable side." Asuna told the player. "Everyone ok with this plan?"

Everyone nodded. "Ok we will meet one again one week after this battle. Good luck to you all." A player yelled.

**The next day…**

"Yo Kirito, Asuna!" Agil and Klein called out as they ran up to them to join the attacking party.

"What's up guys!" Kirito greeted giving bumping each of their fists.

"We are here to help with the boss raid." Klein said.

"You really think we would miss out on such an occasion?" Agil asked. "How else are we supposed to get all of that sweet col."

"Good point." Asuna said.

"So has Kirito been treating you well?" Klein asked with an evil smile.

"Not in that way you pervert!" Asuna yelled at him making everyone laugh even though both Asuna and Kirito were blushing. "But otherwise yes."

"Good job Kirito! She doesn't hate you yet, but it won't be long before you hear those words, believe me." Agil joked.

"I can't wait." Kirito muttered.

"Well it is almost time for us to face this bastard." Agil said.

"Yeah we should get over there." Asuna said and they walked the short distance to the rest of the raid group.

"Ok all sixteen players are here." The player who said this was named Lind. According to what Kirito learned from Klein and Agil he pretty much took over the position as leader of the clearers. "My group and Kibaou's will attack it from the side. Kirito, Asuna, Klein, and Agil will draw its attention from the front. Any questions?"

"Everyone ready?" Kirito asked Klein, Agil, and Asuna as they started walking down the road towards the field boss. Klein and Agil nodded while Asuna checked a few things.

"Yep. I wish I had my rapier though." Asuna said.

"Oh yeah I just noticed you don't have your rapier on you. Did it break or something?" Agil asked.

"No I am having it upgraded at the blacksmith shop in the village Kirito and I am staying in." Asuna told them.

"What are you going to use then?" Klein asked her. In response she drew her sword and showed it to them. "So Kirito is rubbing off on you."

"To much for my liking." Asuna joked.

"Hey! I am not rubbing off on you!" Kirito defended himself.

"Yeah you are." She told him.

"How?"

"Before we were in this game I would never have worn black clothes, now I do occasionally. Also I used a rapier before and now I use a sword just about as much as I use my rapier." Asuna said to him.

"Those are your choices." Kirito said.

"True, but I would never have considered them if you weren't around." Asuna countered.

"I thought duels were fun to watch. This is so much better." They heard Klein whisper to Agil.

"Yeah, a lover's quarrel." Agil whispered back.

"What?!" Kirito and Asuna both screamed. "We are not lovers!"

"The first step is always denial." Klein teased. Both Kirito and Asuna were blushing like a tomato now.

"We are not Klein." Asuna growled.

"Oh yeah, could have fooled me. Let me check my memory. You sleep in the same bed every night, are always hanging around together, sometimes I woke up and I saw Asuna snuggling up next to Kirito, and you are both blushing like crazy when I brought that up. That is what I call major signs of love." Klein explained.

"We are friends that is it." Asuna hissed.

"For now." Klein said slyly receiving a death glare from Kirito and Asuna.

"Man you guys remind me of me and my wife except a little more violent." Agil chuckled.

"I thought you would help us with this one Agil." Kirito said.

"No this is just way to much fun to watch." Agil told them.

"My group go hide in the trees over there." The guy from before told his party.

Next Kibaou shouted to his group, "Follow me, we will hide over here."

"Ok guys, make sure it stays focused on us." Kirito told the other three as they all drew their weapons. With the boss now in sight the four approached slowly with their weapons at the ready. With Kirito's detection skill he read the boss's name: Bullbous Bow with three full green health bars. "I'll go first. Be ready to attack and be ready to switch."

The other three moved to the sides with Klein and Agil on the right and Asuna on the left. Kirito walked forward with his weapon ready. When he got within range he activated the **Sonic Leap** Sword Skill. The attack struck the bull on its right side only doing a small bit of damage. Kirito jumped backwards off the Bullbous Bull's side as it turned to hit him with its horns. The bull charged at Kirito which Kirito jumped out of the way at the last second activating the **Slant **Sword Skill on the bull's side.

Asuna charged at the bull with the group that hid on that side right behind her. Kirito kept attacking the bull with various Sword Skills and normal strikes to keep its attention on him. Asuna charged the bull from the side and activated the **Vertical **Sword Skill slashing the bull. On the bulls other side Klein, Agil, and Kibaou's group started to attack the bull. After another minute of this Kirito called a switch, "Yo Klein, switch!"

"You got it buddy." Klein yelled back. Kirito jumped out of the way for the bull's charge and landed next to Asuna. Klein jumped up in front of the bull and slashed its face with the **Reaver **Sword Skill. Bullbous Bow hit Klein sideways with its head sending his HP into the yellow zone.

"Klein's no good. Take over for him." Kirito said to Asuna.

"On it!" Asuna jumped in front of the bull and activated the **Horizontal **Sword Skill as she did so. Instead of focusing on Asuna like they had planned it to Bullbous Bow turned towards Kirito and charged him. Kirito was kneeling on the ground resting and did not notice the charging bull until Asuna yelled, "Kirito!"

Kirito looked up just in time to get smashed by the bull's horns sending him flying backwards into a tree. Bullbous Bow continued his charge at Kirito who got up as fast as he could. Kirito turned around and jumped up kicking off the tree doing a backflip just in time to avoid the charge. On his way down Kirito flipped his sword around and stabbed it into Bullbous Bow's back.

Bullbous Bow began bucking around trying to fling a Kirito off its back. Kirito was hanging onto his **Anneal Blade, **which was stabbed into Bullbous Bow's back, for dear life. Everyone began to attack, but had to stop because the bull charging trees and rocks to get Kirito off. Using his Detection Skill Kirito saw that Bullbous Bow was on it last health bar and in the red. Making a risky decision Kirito pulled out the **Anneal Blade** and activated the Sword Skill **Vertical **slashing the bull downwards.

The Bullbous Bow charged at a tree and rammed into it sending Kirito flying into it. Kirito's HP dropped back into the low yellow zone which he just got out of thanks to his Battle Healing Skill. Bullbous Bow was about to bring one of its hoofs down onto Kirito to kill him, but Kirito stabbed through it with his **Anneal Blade** barely stopping it from killing him. Kirito guessed he had about ten, twenty seconds at the most before his strength ran out and he was killed.

Thankfully all of the other players there attacked Bullbous Bow and just as Kirito was about to give up the giant bull exploded into particles and the, 'Congratulations!' menu popped up in front of them.

Kirito stood up and looked at all of the players cheering around him. Kirito took one step towards the crowd and at that moment lost consciousness. Asuna saw this happen and used a burst of speed to catch him before he hit the ground. "Kirito!" She screamed at trying to get him to wake up. In the corner of her eye she saw that he only had two HP left after the fight.

She took out a healing crystal using the command, "Heal!" to heal him. Klein and Agil ran up behind Asuna and checked on Kirito and a crying Asuna.

"Asuna don't worry he will be fine." Agil told her.

"Yeah Kirito probably just wore himself out. Anyway you of all people should know how much he likes to take naps." Klein said.

"Yeah, you guys are right. Can I have help carrying him to the next town?" she asked.

"Of course. I got this." Agil bent over and picked up Kirito and slung him over his shoulder.

**Two days later…**

Kirito woke up to the feeling of something on his for some reason wet chest. He slowly opened his eyes seeing Asuna sleeping with her head on his chest as she sat in a chair on his bedside. For some reason tears were falling from her closed eyes and looked like she hadn't slept in days. Sunlight was streaming through the curtains on the windows making Asuna's chestnut hair glow. Kirito turned his head to the other side to see Klein sleeping in the extra bed and Agil standing in between the beds leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "About time you woke up." Was all Agil said to Kirito.

"What happened?" Kirito asked.

"After the field boss battle with Bullbous Bow you passed out with two HP remaining. After that you didn't wake up for two days." Agil told him.

"Holy crap." Kirito said and then asked, "Is that even possible in VR games?"

"I guess so and you should probably apologize to Asuna when she wakes up. This is the first time she slept since you passed out." Agil informed him.

"Why didn't she sleep?"

"To busy crying over you."

"I wouldn't have died." Kirito said confused.

"Actually I asked your friend Argo about this and apparently if you get a major injury your HP continues to drain even if you use a Healing Crystal. Luckily it doesn't drain fast, but we still used quite a few Healing Crystals." Agil said.

"Great now we can die from injuries." Kirito sighed.

"This only happens when your HP reaches the red zone though."

"I guess I have a use for Healing Crystals now." Kirito said getting out of bed. He picked her up and laid her in the bed pulling the blankets over her.

"So you thought they were useless before?" Agil asked him.

"Sort of. If you are still alive you can still fight, so why waste time healing yourself." Kirito told him.

"You are one reckless bastard." Agil shook his in amusement.

"Thanks. I am going out for some training. I am probably a little rusty." Kirito said to Agil as he equipped all of his gear.

"No you're not." Agil stopped him in front of the door.

"Yes I am." Kirito narrowed his eyes at Agil.

"Hey man, don't get mad at me! I just want to save both of us from Asuna's wrath." Agil raised his hands in defense.

"Then tell her I went shopping." Kirito said.

"You are going to owe me big time for this." Agil said.

Kirito said nothing instead he just walked out of the door waving.

**Two hours later…**

Kirito was just leaving a shop in the village they were staying at. When he had got done training for an hour he came to a shop to buy some stuff as a cover story. Kirito bought a few new black shirts and pants because they do not have a high durability. It is super embarrassing when you are training with a girl and either you shirt or pants run out of durability from a cut. Yeah embarrassing even though it has happened to Asuna as well. Kirito can still feel the many slaps to the face and hear the echoes of her calling him a pervert. Kirito then stopped at another shop to stock up on healing crystals, antidote crystals, teleport crystals, and some food. Kirito's last stop was to buy another sword for a backup along with an armor upgrade.

After equipping the new armor and putting a few crystals in one of his coat pockets Kirito began to walk back to the inn. On his way back he received a message from Agil saying, 'Asuna and Klein woke up. They want to see you now.' After reading it Kirito began to run back so he can just get the yelling over with. When Kirito finally arrived at their in room he sighed and opened the door expecting to get yelled at instead he got hug tackled by Asuna.

"Kirito!" Asuna yelled as she hugged him so tight Kirito figured that if they weren't in a safe zone he would be losing HP.

"Hey Asuna. To… tight." Kirito chocked out.

Asuna let go saying, "Sorry." Over and over again.

"It's fine." Kirito told her as she finally let go of him.

With Asuna acting like that Kirito hoped that maybe Asuna won't yell at him, but he was so wrong. "You are an idiot! You could have used a teleport crystal to get out of Bullbous Bow's way or you could have rolled out of the way. But no you had to be and idiot about it. You do realize that you can't mess around in this death game!"

"Sorry, I didn't have much time to think about what I was going to do." Kirito said.

In a much softer voice Asuna said, "Kirito in this world and in the real world there are people who care about you. Next time before you make that dumb decision remember everyone you care for and those who care for you. I am your friend and you are probably my best friend so please don't get yourself killed."

Kirito was shocked at what she said and didn't notice Asuna's blush as she was saying that, "Your right. I will do that if you do the same." Kirito smiled at her.

"Let's do that Kirito." Asuna agreed.

"Ok I hate to interrupt your guys' moment, but we should probably go train for the next boss battle." Klein said.

"Yeah. We should head to the next boss labyrinth and find that boss room. I am getting sick of this floor." Kirito said.

"I have to pick up my **Wind Fleuret **before we go. I like the sword, but I like my rapier quite a bit more." Asuna said.

"Then it is decided. We go to the blacksmith shop to pick up Asuna's rapier then we go do some hunting!" Agil told them with his voice filled with enthusiasm.

**Three days later…**

"That's it." Kirito said. "The boss room."

"Should we take a peek inside?" Asuna asked.

"Well duh." Klein said, "How else are we going to get information on the boss."

"Alright, but get your teleport crystals ready, and if need I will buy you time." Kirito told everyone receiving a nod even though everyone knew they would not follow that order.

Kirito stepped forward slowly pushing open the door with his **Anneal Blade **in hand. The room was dark and was a giant stone cave with the Third Floor warp gate in the back of it. The four of them slowly started to walk into the room with their weapons ready until they saw the boss towering over the four of them. Using his detection skill Kirito identified the boss as Asterios the Taurus King and he had four health bars. The boss toward over them with a giant Warhammer in his hands. "Oh shit." Agil said.

"Wait we need to see its attack patterns." Kirito told them as they were about to bolt.

"Are you crazy?!" Klein asked as he backed up while the boss raised its hammer.

"Yes." Kirito told him. The boss brought down its hammer right where Kirito was standing, but Kirito jumped out of the way. When the hammer hit the ground the entire cave shook staggering all of them. While Kirito was staggered the boss swung the Warhammer at him slamming into Kirito's left leg as he tried to jump out of the way. Kirito flew backwards a few feet with his entire left leg glowing red from the damage. "One direct hit from that thing and you are dead." Kirito warned everyone as he checked his HP to see he was in the high yellow.

"Can we run for our lives now." Klein asked as he started to back even farther away from the boss. Asterios was walking up to Kirito with its Warhammer raised and was about to smash him when Asuna ran up behind it and activated the Sword Skill **Quadruple Pain** stabbing the boss in the back four times drawing the boss's attention onto her. Kirito, Asuna, Klein, and Agil ran out of the boss room as fast as they could after that barely getting missed by the Warhammer which propelled them out of the boss room.

"Use your teleport crystals." Kirito panted and they all warped out of the dungeon.

**End of that week…**

**At the boss battle meeting…**

"Ok so who has information on the Second Floor boss?" A guy named Lind asked.

Asuna stepped up and said, "Yeah it is at the top of the Second Floor Labyrinth. He is a giant humanoid bull kind of like the Minotaur. He wields a giant Warhammer and is about three or four meters tall. The boss's name is Asterios the Taurus King." Asuna informed everyone present.

"How did you find all of that out? It is totally different in the guide book. In the **Guide Book** the boss is Baran the General Taurus." A player asked.

This time Kirito stepped up to answer that question. "That was the boss in the beta. When I, Asuna, Klein, and Agil were training we found that boss and it is a mid-level boss not the floor boss. We were also the party who scouted the labyrinth and found the new boss."

"So what you are saying is that we cannot trust everything the **Guide Book** says anymore." Kibaou said.

"Yes. Many things have changed since the beta." Kirito replied.

"In that case we can't trust beta testers either. For all we know they could have lied about everything in the **Guide Book**." Kibaou told everyone.

"Seriously. This again." Kirito grumbled. Asuna looked at him and shrugged.

"I'll take care of this one." Klein told Kirito.

"Thanks bro." Kirito thanked him.

"Everyone shut up!" Klein yelled at the group who was pointing out errors in the **Guide Book.** "Yes the **Guide Book **has errors, but that makes sense. No one has a perfect memory and this version of Sword Art Online is different that the beta version. Yes so far all of the bosses are different, but that doesn't mean there won't be some that are the same. Also if the bosses and mobs and other things are different that puts the beta testers in the same boat as us."

"Still, the_" A player tried to say something.

"The beta testers have helped us. Given us almost all of the information on SAO they have and some even helped us in boss battle like Kirito." Asuna defended.

"Now can we please get back to the meeting?" Kirito asked and sent Asuna a small smile saying, 'Thanks.' Making Asuna blush and confusing Kirito as she did.

"Now that, that little dispute is over we have plans to make. Do you know the boss's attack patterns?" Lind asked.

"Yeah we got them used on us." Kirito said. "With the Warhammer Asterios can use a heavy downward attack that would kill anyone that got hit in one shot and staggers anyone near it. When you are staggered Asterios swings the Warhammer horizontally at you. That is all we witnessed."

"Holy shit."

"How are we supposed to beat this guy?"

"We are so dead." Comments like this started coming from the players.

"From what we know this will actually be an easier fight than you guys think. I used one of my strongest attacks on Asterios and it did more damage than it would against the last boss. From what we can tell Asterios is slow and has weak armor so if we all can surround it attacking we should not have much difficulty killing it." Asuna told the clearers.

"Illfang didn't have much armor." A guy pointed out.

"Maybe I had a critical hit or all of Illfang's fat helped with armor." Asuna guessed.

"Ok, but what do we do if we are about to get squished or if we get staggered?" Another player asked.

"If you are staggered lay on the ground as flat as possible because the Warhammer is always about half a meter off the ground when swinging." Kirito said.

"And if we are about to get smashed?" Lind asked.

"Run, jump out of the way, hope someone knocks you out of the way, or hope someone else draws Asterios's attention like Asuna did for me." Kirito answered.

"Would shields help block the attacks?" a shield user asked.

"A bit, but there are problems if you try to block the attacks. Asterios is very strong and so is the weapon so if he swings full force at a shield you would get sent flying and most likely you will need a new shield. Your best bet is tried to evade the attack." Klein explained.

"Should we not even have our shields equipped then." Another shield user asked.

"Have the shields equipped because that may be just enough to save your life, but there is no promises with that." Kirito answered. Everyone nodded in understanding.

"Do we even have a good plan?" A player asked.

"No." Almost everyone said.

"Shouldn't we make one?" the player asked.

"Yeah, but we should just use the same one as we did for the first boss fight. That is probably our best bet." Agil said.

"That makes it easy for a lot of people to die." Kibaou growled.

"We are aware of that. Asterios is slow and so is his attacks because of that we should all be able to dodge if we are not staggered." Kirito said.

"If anyone dies that is your fault then." Kibaou hissed at Kirito.

"It is not my fault if we all agree to the plan and if you don't agree don't participate." Kirito shrugged. "Who here is ok with this plan?" Almost everyone except Kibaou and a few of his friends raised their hand.

Kibaou huffed and walked out of the cave they were having their meeting in. "He is going to kill try to kill you one of these time." Klein told Kirito.

"Like he hasn't already tried." Kirito mumbled so only Asuna could hear him earning a laugh from her.

"You have enough enemies already Kirito." Asuna warned him.

"True, but I doubt the list will stop at where it is now." Kirito told her as they started to walk out.

"Where and when do we go for the boss battle?" Asuna called back to the group of players still in the cave..

"Tomorrow at noon, at the top of the Second Floor labyrinth!" Lind yelled back to them. Asuna nodded and ran to catch up to Kirito who was still walking out.

**That night….**

"I want your food though, Asuna." Kirito whined.

"Shut up and eat the bread." Asuna told him.

"It tastes like cardboard." Kirito continued to whine.

"Damn Kirito, you sound like a two year old!" Klein joked, "You could be a voice actor for babies in anime."

"Klein has anyone ever told you that you are a total asshole sometimes." Kirito glared at him making Asuna and Agil laugh.

"I've tried, but he never lets me finish." Agil told Kirito.

"Do agree with us that Klein is an asshole sometimes, Asuna?" Kirito asked Asuna.

"Yeah, but you are too at times." Asuna said.

"Hey!" Klein and Kirito said in union.

"Well it's true." Asuna raised her arm in defense.

"I guess you're right, but we are never as bad as you when it is that time of month." Kirito joked. Asuna's face turned from one of calm to one of rage. Asuna immediately tried to slap Kirito, but was blocked by the system because they were in a Safe Zone. Klein and Agil were laughing their butts off as Asuna tackled Kirito and continued to try and slap him.

"You are lucky that we are in a Safe Zone." Asuna growled then added, "That is one of your asshole moments."

"I deserved that." Kirito said.

"I have made that mistake as well." Agil told Kirito.

"I already have multiple times. My sister used to chase me around hitting me with her kendo sword when I said something like that." Kirito admitted.

"Well my wife throws whatever is in her hands at me. One time she used a plate like a throwing star." Agil chuckled at the memory.

"Can we get off of this topic please and that doesn't even happen in the VR world Kirito." Asuna said feeling uncomfortable.

"Ok. Let's sleep so we can get off of this shity floor tomorrow." Kirito said and lay down in his bed. A few seconds later Asuna lay down next to him and they drifted off to sleep.

**In the morning…**

"Let's go you lazy men!" Asuna yelled. Kirito, Klein, and Agil were all still lying down not wanting to get up.

"Five more minutes." Kirito said rolling over.

"That sounds nice." Klein grumbled.

"Like a day in heaven." Agil added.

"Yeah." The three of them sighed at the same time.

"Fine then I will go face the boss by myself and you guys get none of the col." Asuna said. Kirito and Agil bolted up with Klein doing the same except much slower. All of them got up for different reasons though: Agil got up because he wanted the col, Kirito because he wouldn't let Asuna go alone even though he wouldn't say that out loud, and Klein because he didn't want to stay behind.

"I should start out with that next time." Asuna mumbled as she watched the three guys get ready in two minutes flat.

"No, next time we should have the battle later in the day." Kirito said.

"It's ten in the morning!" Asuna yelled.

"Your point?" Klein asked.

"Never mind, let's just go." Asuna said.

**Second Floor Boss Room…**

**Time: Eleven forty five**

"We got here fifteen minutes early and yet we are the last people here." Kirito grumbled.

"I tried to wake you up for over an hour." Asuna told him. "We could have been the first people here otherwise."

"Good, now everyone is here." Lind said. "If no one objects, equip the gear you want and anything else you want. When you have it equipped we are going to kill this bastard."

Everyone nodded and began equipping and unequipped armor and weapons. Two minutes later everyone was ready for a boss battle with their heads and weapons held high. Two players in the front of the raid group pushed open the boss room door and charged in with the other players behind them. When everyone was in the room torches on the walls of the cave lit giving the entire cave an eerie look. Asterios was standing in the middle of the cave with his Warhammer held at the ready.

Kirito took the lead with his three other party members behind him. All the other players were looking at Asterios with a bit of fear before they took a deep breath, steeled their nerves, and followed them into battle.

Asterios swung its Warhammer down on Kirito, but missed as Kirito jumped to the side. When the Warhammer hit the ground everyone within a ten meter radius was staggered except for Kirito who was still airborne. The second Kirito landed he turned back towards Asterios. Kirito lunged at Asterios who was about to smash some staggered players, and activated the Sword Skill **Sonic Leap** to get Asterios's attention.

Just as the Warhammer was about to hit the players, Kirito hit Asterios, changing the Warhammer's path. Unfortunately it went towards Kirito. Kirito was close enough to Asterios so when the Warhammer came around he only got hit by the handle not the hammer head. In that time the players became unstaggered and attacked Asterios.

"If Asterios is about to swing its Warhammer, jump up and out of the way! Everyone else who is within ten meters of the Warhammer at the time jump into the air! If you are airborne you won't get staggered!" Kirito yelled at his fellow clearers as he ran back towards Asterios.

"Got it!" A few different clearers yelled back. Ten minutes into the battle no one was badly hurt. Since everyone was so close to Asterios and was attacking, Asterios couldn't get any good hits off. The only times when Asterios hits somebody is when Asterios hits them with the handle of the Warhammer, but when Asterios is about to smash the player they jump out of harm's way along with everyone in a ten meter radius.

Everything continued like this until Asterios reached its last health bar. Asterios reached up on the Warhammer and took off the hammer head revealing a spear point. With surprising speed Asterios swung the spear around its body cutting about twenty clearers in the process. No one was killed, but a few were sent into the low yellow and high red from that attack. A few other people with good enough reaction time like Kirito, Asuna, and Klein were able to either dodge or block the attack.

"Shield users and tanks; take the front while everyone else attacks from the sides!" Lind commanded. A wall of tanks and shield users formed in front of the other players and started to block Asterios's frenzy of attacks. Kirito and Asuna ran to the left of Asterios and unleashed Sword Skills into Asterios's side. Asuna started off with the four hit combo Sword Skill **Quadruple Pain** and followed up with ten **Linear **Sword Skills in a row. Kirito used his **Rage Spike **Sword Skill and after that he used the **Vertical Square **Sword Skill followed by a bunch of **Horizontal**s, **Vertical**s, and **Slant**s. On their sides were a bunch of other players doing the same thing and finally after two minutes of attacking like this Asterios was defeated.

Once the 'Congratulations!' message appeared everyone cheered for a few minutes and then collapsed on the ground. "Well that was fun." Kirito said sarcastically as he and Asuna rested their backs against each other's.

"Not really, but at least this time no one died." Asuna replied.

"And me getting blamed for their death." Kirito added.

"Kibaou was a total idiot for blaming you though." Asuna told him.

"Do you want to go unlock the warp gate to the next floor?" Kirito asked Asuna.

"Sure." They both stood up and started walking towards the Third Floor door. "Anything special on this floor?"

"Um… yeah. On this floor you can do a quest to form a guild and this is the floor I had my apartment on during the beta." Kirito told her.

"We should buy your old apartment. I am getting sick of renting inns all the time." Asuna said.

"Seriously?" Kirito asked.

"Yeah! We can get some storage and stuff in it to because I am about to reach my weight limit if I remember right." Asuna said as Kirito opened the door to the Third Floor.

"We would be living together, you know that right." Kirito told her.

"We have pretty much lived together since day one so why not." Asuna shrugged as they walked out onto the third floor. The two of them looked out onto a huge hilly and green area with a town about a kilometer to the west. "At least it isn't as yellow and crappy as the last floor."

"It's nice. I'll show you to my apartment then." Kirito told her and the two of them walked down the big will towards the town.

**Author's Note: Well that's it for this chapter. Sorry it took a little longer than I hope, but I hope you all liked it. I would have had it up yesterday or maybe even Friday, but I was caught up watching the new SAO episode and reading the Light Novels I rented from the library. Next chapter will probably cover everything that will happen during the time that the third floor is the frontlines sense there is no special quest or anything they will have to complete. Also I would appreciate it if I got some ideas for the third floor boss because it is not posted on the SAO wiki or if you have some ideas for some later floors send them. **

**This is what type of boss I am looking for on the Third Floor:**

**1. A fantasy or beast hybrid boss**  
**2. I would like a fast boss with low damage rate, but attacks really fast.**  
**3. I don't really care, but come up with something good.**

**See you all next time!**

**Follow, Favorite, and Review!**

**~ColtonTheCreeper **


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Hello my good reader friends and welcome to Sword Art Online Alternate! This chapter is all about part of Kirito and Asuna's adventure on the Third Floor. I read the reviews and PMs about what boss I should have and I have decided, but you will have to read to find out what the boss is. Also after next chapter I will make a little chapter that will not count as a major update on what is happening in the real world. The time will span from the launch of Sword Art Online to the end of next chapter. I will make chapters like those occasionally, but very rarely, in other words after every quarter floor in the game like twenty five, fifty, and seventy five, and of course when they reach one hundred. One other thing I am so sorry for the late update on this story but I have been very, very, busy lately and I have been a little lazy. I swear I will try to never have that big of a gap between chapters ever again. Now on with the chapter which may be a little boring in the beginning, but that is probably just my opinion. P.S I do not plan to discontinue this story anytime soon or ever for that matter.**

**Disclaimer: There is no way I could own Sword Art Online. I am not rich and I am American not Japanese.**

Chapter 5: Apartment!

"Well there goes half of our col." Kirito sighed as he picked up the keys to their new apartment.

"Yes, but at least now we have a place to live." Asuna told him.

"I know. Now let's go buy some furniture." Kirito replied.

"Where do we go to get furniture?" Asuna asked.

"Next door." Kirito stated.

"Oh." Asuna said as they walked out of the shop and walked into the other one right next to it.

"Hello and welcome to my shop! What can I get for you?" The woman NPC shop keeper greeted them. When she finished a screen popped up in front of Kirito with everything they can buy.

"Asuna help me pick some stuff out because I have no sense of fashion." Kirito said.

"Ok because I don't want our apartment to be entirely black." Asuna said as she looked over Kirito's shoulder. "We need a bed, a night stand, a few lamps, and two dressers, two chests to store items, a table or two with preferably four chairs, a stove, some chairs, and a couch."

"Ok and the apartment come with a bathroom." Kirito told her.

"Good. I can't remember the last time I cleaned myself." Asuna said with a huge smile on her face.

"Do you want a sink to go with the stove or any other cookware?" Kirito asked.

"Yeah get a sink otherwise I don't need any unless we don't have cupboards." Asuna told him.

"It does. So is that it?" Kirito asked.

"Yep." Asuna told him. Kirito purchased all of the items they had just agreed on. After he confirmed the purchase and checked how much col he had left he frowned.

"I only have ten thousand col left." Kirito whined.

"Ha, I have fifty five thousand col left." Asuna smirked.

"Well we have to split the cost so give me enough col so we have the same amount." Kirito told her.

Asuna glared at him, but nodded opening up a trade menu. She sent him twenty two thousand and five hundred col. "That good." Asuna grumbled.

"Yep now let's go to our new home." Kirito smiled and the two of them walked out of the shop. After walking through the town for a bit they finally stopped in front of their apartment. Kirito put his key in the lock and opened the door saying, "Welcome to our current home Asuna."

The inside of the apartment was small and had three rooms. The first is the empty living room/ dining room/ kitchen because it had all of them in the area. The second room it of course the bathroom. It had all of the normal bathroom things inside such as, a toilet (for decoration because you don't shit in a video game), a bath tub, and a sink. The third room was their bedroom and it was currently empty just like the living room.

"Looks a little blank." Was all Asuna said.

"We bought furniture for a reason. And you call me an idiot." Kirito joked.

"Then let's start placing some then." Asuna told him. Kirito nodded and materialized all of the furniture that was going in the living room. For the next hour and a half the two of them moved furniture around, put items in chests and cupboards, and finally relaxed for the rest of the night.

"I never knew it would take so long to do this. It is almost ten at night." Kirito said and took a sip of the tea Asuna made for the two of them.

"Did you never rearrange furniture?" Asuna asked him.

"No. Most of the time my room is a mess." Kirito shrugged.

"And why is that?" Asuna asked.

"I am almost always on my computer." Kirito answered then added. "You sounded like my mother or actually my aunt there."

"What do you mean?" Asuna asked him confused.

"I never told you?" Kirito asked and Asuna shook her head in response. "Well my mom is not actually my mom, but my aunt. My biological parents were killed when I was young so I don't remember them. Until I was ten I thought my aunt and my cousin were actually my mother and my younger sister."

"Well I am sorry to hear that." Asuna said.

"Don't be. It is my fault I found out anyway. When I was ten I hacked into a website and found out who my real parents were. After that I confronted my mother about it and then I avoided both her and my sister." Kirito explained. "I feel bad about it and right now I would do anything to make it up to them."

"And I thought I had it bad." Asuna muttered.

"Your turn to talk about your family." Kirito told her.

"Isn't it an unspoken taboo to do so in SAO." Asuna complained.

"I just did so, so should you too." Kirito said.

"Fine. I have an older brother and a mother and father. My brother is the reason why I am even here in SAO. He bought it and wanted to play it as soon as possible, but some business stuff came up. I asked him if I could try it out and now I am stuck in here. I bet he is blaming himself for me being stuck in here. Next there is my father. He is a loving man and the CEO of the company RECTO Inc. Finally there is my mother. She is a cold woman from a middle class background. She wants what is best for me, but we have disagreed over that many times. For a while now she has been trying to pick a future fiancé for me, but I don't want her to. She wants me to have a rich husband so I am finically happy. In all honesty I don't give two shits about money, buy that I am happy with the person who I am married to. I could be married to a hobo and as long as I love him I don't care. I just want to choose who I want." Asuna explained and glanced at Kirito for the last part.

"Wow. That would absolutely suck. No offense." Kirito said.

"Rubbing it in, I see." Asuna said.

"Hey. Maybe you can make your mother understand or find some rich guy that you do like." Kirito tried.

"I already love somebody though." Asuna mumbled.

"What was that?" Kirito asked.

"Nothing! Nothing at all!" Asuna exclaimed waving her hands in front of her.

"Sure it wasn't. Want to go to bed?"

"Yeah let's go. The meeting for the next boss fight is in three days." Asuna said.

"Yep and we need to train." Kirito told her.

"You can say that again." Asuna sighed as they walked into their room.

"Yep and we need to train." Kirito repeated with a smirk on his face. Asuna just reached the bed when he said that so she picked up her pillow and hit him across the face with it. "OW!"

"Well maybe next time you shouldn't be a smartass and you won't get hit!" Asuna yelled at him.

"Asses can't be smart." Kirito pointed out receiving another hit to the face.

"Shut up you moron!" Asuna yelled.

"You just said asses can be smart yet I am the moron?!" Kirito yelled back.

"Would you two shut up! It is ten thirty at night and people are trying to sleep!" Some guy yelled from next door.

"You shut up before I drive my sword up your ass!" Kirito yelled back. Asuna gave him a weird look and Kirito realized what he just said. "My actual sword not the other kind of sword!"

"I knew you were talking about the weapon not the other kind, but ok. And why did you think of that anyway?!" The guy yelled to Kirito.

"Weird, um… girlfriend." Kirito decided.

"That explains it. Don't stay up to late if you know what I mean!" the guy yelled. Kirito's face turned red and he turned to see Asuna's face also red.

"So I'm your girlfriend?" Asuna asked raising her eyebrows.

"It's a cover story for why we are living together." Kirito said hastily.

"Oh." Asuna said with disappointment in her voice that Kirito did not pick up.

"Ok time to sleep!" Kirito shouted in joy and face planted into his pillow with his body spread out all over the bed.

"Move over fatty I need to lie down too." Asuna said pushing some of Kirito's limbs off her side of the bed.

"I'm not a fatty, I'm a swordsman." Kirito muttered and passed out.

"Yes, you are my swordsman." Asuna muttered and lay down next to Kirito drifting off to sleep.

**Real World…**

The two families of Kirito and Asuna or Kazuto Kirigaya and Asuna Yuuki were both watching while they had their family conversation. At the end of it both families ended up crying and seeing the truths in their words. When realizing this they were both happy and sad, but swore that they would fix their wrongs once they returned.

**Aincrad…**

"Come on Kirito. You were the one who said we needed to train." Asuna tried waking Kirito up again.

"Yeah I know, but we are still the strongest players in Sword Art Online so we don't need to worry." Kirito said rolling over in their bed.

"Will you ever wake up when I ask you?" Asuna asked him.

"No. Will you let me sleep longer?" Kirito countered.

"No." Asuna told Kirito.

"Fine, I'm up." Kirito said sitting up.

"About damn time." Asuna mumbled.

"That's what I think when we are shopping." Kirito said standing up and equipping his equipment.

"Shopping is a lot more fun than waking you up every morning." Asuna growled.

"For you maybe, but it is every man's worst nightmare to answer the question 'does this make me look fat?' or 'Is this dress cute?' It is hell." Kirito ranted.

"It is not that bad!" Asuna yelled.

"Last time you threatened me with a butter knife! I have faced creatures three times the size and a lot deadlier than you, but I have never seen anything as terrifying that you with that butter knife!" Kirito yelled back.

"Come on, we were in a Safe Zone. I couldn't hurt you no matter what." Asuna complained.

"That scene still scares me in nightmares." Kirito said.

"But you look so cute when you sleep. It never looks like you have nightmares." Asuna said.

"Wait you watch me when I sleep?" Kirito asked and Asuna blushed when he said that.

"I wake up first and you are still asleep so I see you sleeping." Asuna mumbled.

"Ok, but you think I look cute when I sleep?" Kirito asked raising an eyebrow at her.

"Um…" Asuna looked anywhere, but at Kirito with a huge blush on her face.

"Enough said. I know your answer now." Kirito smirked and walked out of the room chuckling.

**In the Forest of Wavering Mist…**

"Why do we have to be here?" Asuna asked.

"To train. There are some high level monsters here." Kirito answered.

"You mean a bunch of bugs." Asuna said.

"The same thing." Kirito shrugged.

"Bugs are worse than any stupid monsters." Asuna told him.

"Would you rather face a giant butterfly or a hydra with twenty heads?" Kirito asked.

"Well the butterfly, but_" Asuna tried to speak, but was cut off by Kirito.

"There is your answer. Now let's move on." Kirito interrupted.

For the next few days until the boss meeting Kirito and Asuna went to the Forest of Wavering Mist to train. On the last day before the meeting Kirito decided to mess with Asuna a bit, "Hey Asuna we should go a bit deeper into the forest for some stronger monsters." Kirito suggested.

"Ok. These monsters are way too easy for me." Asuna replied.

"Tell me about it. I am at level twenty and that is two levels higher than you." Kirito said as they started walking deeper into the forest taking out anything that stood in their way. 'If I remember right from the beta the area where the astral type field boss should be nearby.' Kirito thought.

"Where are we going? The monsters are already stronger." Asuna asked.

"Right through here." Kirito gestured to an entrance in front of a giant tree made of mist.

"O-Ok." Asuna stuttered with a hint of fear in her voice. The two walked through the mist into the dark hollow tree. Asuna was absolutely terrified while Kirito was smiling like a mad man. The entrance they walked through sealed and a few torches on the walls ignited and made creepy shadows dance across the walls. "Kirito. I'm scared." Asuna whispered and clung to Kirito's arm.

"Well, draw your rapier because we are about to fight." Kirito smiled as he drew his **Anneal Blade**.

"What are we fighting?" Asuna asked.

"A boss." Kirito shrugged.

"What?" Asuna shrieked. "You need a raid group to take on a boss!"

"I soloed it in the beta." When Kirito finished saying that they heard a roar and a flash in front of them revealed the boss. Its name is The Demon Prince next to its name it revealed three health bars. In The Demon Prince's hands were a great sword in the right and a shield in the left.

"You're an asshole." Asuna muttered to Kirito. "You know I am afraid of ghosts."

"You caught me, but it gives a lot of money and XP, so ATTACK!" Kirito yelled and charged leaving Asuna behind him. Kirito activated the Sword Skill **Sonic Leap** and struck Demon Prince's shield.

"So scary." Asuna muttered as she stood still in the same spot trembling. Kirito bounced back from the Sword Skill and jumped forward again with the Sword Skill **Vertical Arc**.

"Come on Asuna! Get a hold of yourself!" Kirito yelled as he was hit back again.

"I-It's a ghost!" Asuna yelled to him.

"Oh God this is sad." Kirito muttered as he activated the **Rage Spike **Sword Skill and once again got blocked by the shield. "Get in here or we will both die!"

Kirito charged in without activating any Sword Skills and attacked as fast as he could, but could not break the Demon Prince's defense. The Demon Prince pushed Kirito back and swung his sword at Kirito cutting him across the chest sending him flying back into the wall. The Demon Prince walked forward and raised his sword overhead activating the Sword Skill **Vertical. **Half way down the Sword Skill was interrupted and pushed out of the way by Asuna attacking The Demon Prince's arm with the Sword Skill **Quadruple Pain**.

With lightning fast reaction time The Demon Prince smashed his shield's side into Asuna sending her flying. Again lightning fast he charged at Asuna who was still in midair and swung his sword at her. Asuna twisted in midair trying to avoided the attack. In doing so she was to slow to move her left arm out of the way which got cleaved off at the shoulder making her scream in terror and fake pain. "Asuna!" Kirito yelled to her as he attacked the boss. From the corner of her eye as she fell Asuna saw Kirito attacking in a whole different style than when he usually did. 'Either I am hallucinating or Kirito is using another weapon.' Asuna thought as she landed depleting even more of her HP.

Kirito swung his sword using the **Horizontal **Sword Skill and jumped up and activated the **Vertical Arc **Sword Skill with his other sword. With both swords Kirito activated **Horizontal **and knocked away both the Demon Prince's sword and shield. Kirito jumped forward and used the Dual-Wielding Sword Skill **Double Circular** spinning twice and hitting the boss in the chest. "Time to finish this!" Kirito yelled and activated the Dual-Wielding Sword Skill **Demonic Strike**. With his swords glowing blue Kirito lunged forward stabbing the Demon Prince in the stomach. Kirito ripped up with both swords still inside the Demon Prince and performed a backflip off of the boss and slashed up once again as he landed but the Demon Prince had just enough time to raise his shield and block the attack. Still in the **Demonic Strike **Sword Skill Kirito let loose a barrage of eight lightning fast sword swings getting hit by the Demon Prince's sword twice in the process. With his right sword Kirito stabbed the Demon Prince's shield with enough force to shatter it. With the final attack in the Dual-Wielding Sword Skill Kirito stabbed the boss in the chest with his second sword killing the boss.

Kirito stayed in the same position for a second as the BGM changed from an eerie one to the one they always hear when they beat a boss. Kirito sheathed his swords before checking the XP and col he received from the battle. The drops were some key, a note, and a helmet which he will sell once they get back to town.

A shock ran through Kirito as he just remembered to check his and Asuna's HP and saw them both very low. Kirito looked around for a second and saw Asuna lying on the ground twenty feet behind him and clutching the stump where her arm was cut off. "Asuna!" Kirito yelled as he ran over to her pulling out two Health Crystals in the process. "You ok?" Kirito asked as he put a hand on Asuna's shoulder and said the command to heal Asuna then did so to himself.

"Yeah, thanks. What was it that you did just now?" Asuna asked.

"A skill called Dual-Wielding I picked up a few days ago. Also tell no one of that skill." Kirito commanded her as he helped Asuna up.

"What? Why not?" Asuna asked very confused.

"I have read up on all of the skills in this game and how to get them and Dual-Wielding wasn't in any of the sites I read on. The explanation I have is when Kayaba mentioned something in an interview about ten unique skills that only one player in the entire game can get." Kirito explained as they walked out of the boss room and into the forest once again.

**Author's Note: Sorry for the really short chapter, but I just wanted to get something out there because I haven't posted in a while and I wanted to post a chapter before school starts. I will try to have another up within a week or two at the most. Well guys thank you for reading and sorry once again.**

**Follow, Favorite, and Review!**

**~ColtonTheCreeper**


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